Originally Posted by
rickair7777
It can be done. Just need to be very paranoid while doing that. I once worked for a big company where I got roped into security/loss/fraud prevention, and if they got a whiff of fraud they'll go to some length to catch you at it.
LTD for lower back issues? Those telephoto lens shots of you playing 18 holes will probably get you canned.
True there are a lot of conditions which have subjective symptoms and can't really be confirmed or denied by a doc. The problem with most of those is that you may not be able to convince the FAA that you're all good as soon as you're ready to come back to work. That game works better if you're just "retiring" early.
The problem I see with this in regards to medical exemptions from COVID vaccinations is that nothing in either the UPA, nor the LTD policy mention anything about
maintaining an FAA physical. It simply states that qualify you are unable to execute the privileges of that certificate due to a medical condition.
The two typically go hand in hand, but in this case the loss of medical is not the medical condition that is preventing them from exercising that certificate, but the result is the same. The language is broad enough to where I think those who qualify would have a legitimate challenge to being placed on unpaid leave for a bona fide medical exemption without the benefit of LTD. I don’t see any force majeure exemptions in the policy either.