The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it has officially established the Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances Rulemaking Committee (ARC).

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker confirmed the new committee in a statement issued Wednesday. "This is a crucial step toward safely addressing mental health stigma, and the well-being of pilots and air traffic controllers," he wrote on social media platform X.

The ARC will be tasked with providing recommendations to the agency on ways to identify and break down any remaining barriers that discourage pilots from reporting and seeking help for mental health issues. The same will apply to potential issues impacting FAA air traffic controllers.

The committee will submit its recommendations to the FAA by the end of March 2024. ?

The names of experts from the aviation and medical communities who will serve on the committee will be revealed by the FAA soon, the agency said.

The ARC will build on the FAA's latest efforts to prioritize mental health. Currently, regulations require airline pilots to undergo a medical exam with an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) every six months to five years, depending on the type of flying they do and their age.

The formation of the committee comes on the heels of several troubling reports, including a New York Times story alleging some air traffic controllers have been using drugs and alcohol at work to combat fatigue amid staffing shortages and mandatory overtime at many of the nation's airports.

Earlier this week, an ex-Alaska Airlines pilot was indicted and charged with one count of endangering aircraft in the first degree and 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person after attempting to shut off a plane's engines mid-flight while suffering an apparent panic attack.

Forty-four-year-old Joseph David Emerson was off duty but traveling in the cockpit's flight deck jump seat at the time of the incident on October 22.

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