Whistleblower Fears COVID-19 Shots Pose Aviation Dangers

A person draws Moderna vaccine into a syringe during a drive-through COVID-19 vaccine clinic at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario, on Jan. 2, 2022. The Canadian Press/Lars Hagberg

A chorus of whistleblowers alleging that COVID-19 inoculations may have turned pilots into airborne ticking time bombs seems to be growing louder. Experienced military, medical, and aviation personnel are citing increasing concerns about potential catastrophic side effects of the shots—such as strokes, heart attacks, or pulmonary embolisms—occurring during flights.

The whistleblowers allege that federal mandates ordering the jabs conflict with FAA standards for medications. Under those regulations, pilots are barred from flying when using drugs that earned FDA approval less than a year prior. COVID shots were administered under Emergency Use Authorization, not full FDA approval.

But various American government agencies, such as the FAA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, insist that the COVID-19 shots are safe and effective. A number of whistleblowers are among those who beg to differ.

The latest person to come forward, Federal Aviation Safety Inspector Bruce McGray, went public on Aug. 30 in an online video conference that was organized by an attorney and medical freedom advocate, Todd Callender. The presentation attracted about 2,000 attendees.

McGray, who has 55 years of aviation experience and still works at the FAA, asserted that he sees “clear evidence” of danger to pilots and hence to the flying public.

“In my professional opinion, it is only a matter of days or weeks before such a horrific incident or accident will happen,” he wrote in a sworn declaration, “if we don’t immediately begin (medically) screening pilots, mechanics, ground crews, all support personnel including air traffic controllers.”

McGray made it clear that the opinions he expressed were his own, rendered under federal whistleblower protections. He and his allies also say their goal is to get help for pilots and others who are afraid to reveal concerns about possible vaccine side effects.

FAA Can’t or Won’t Act

After signing his declaration in late July, McGray said he turned it over to FAA executives and others in the federal government. His 17-page sworn declaration is based on his expertise, plus more than two years of research; he backed it with 200 pages of exhibits. McGray said it has become clear that no federal action is forthcoming. “They cannot act for whatever reason,” McGray told The Epoch Times on Sept. 2. “It’s up to ordinary citizens, aviation personnel, legal representatives, and the medical community to join together and find solutions, to keep America able to travel in the air.”

Examples of organizations that participated in the Aug. 30 online conference, include Medical Doctors for Covid Ethics International, America’s Frontline Doctors, US Freedom Flyers, Disabled Rights Advocates, and Liberty Counsel.

McGray’s report included his observations about how the COVID-19 pandemic played out in general across America and in the aviation world. “As late as December of 2021, despite myself and other aviation professionals raising safety issue concerns, the FAA took no apparent official position, nor instituted any safety protocols for flight crews, ground crews, and maintenance,” he wrote. “Instead, the FAA promoted and provided the experimental Emergency Use Authorized COVID-19 shots.”

Asked for comment regarding McGray’s declaration, the FAA sent an email to The Epoch Times, stating: “The FAA’s Federal Air Surgeon determined in December 2020 and February 2021 that pilots and air traffic controllers can safely receive the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”

A flight surgeon or air surgeon is a medical doctor with special training in aerospace medicine.

Dr. Peter Chambers, a Green Beret flight surgeon who worked on the COVID task force in Texas in an interview on EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program on August 1, 2022 . Screenshot via Epoch TV

Pilots Calling Off Sick

Another whistleblower, a 39-year military veteran who recently retired after serving as a green beret and a flight surgeon, Dr. Peter Chambers, told The Epoch Times that federal agencies aren’t seeing evidence of vaccine-related issues because they’re wearing blinders.

“The FAA has done zero investigations in the art of medicine,” he asserted, alleging that the agency hasn’t investigated an apparent pattern of “pilots who have taken the shots are calling in sick more frequently.”

The FAA did not respond to a reporter’s follow-up email asking to verify whether any action was being taken in response to McGray’s concerns.

However, the agency’s email stated: “The FAA has seen no evidence of aircraft accidents or pilot incapacitations caused by pilots suffering medical complications associated with COVID-19 vaccines.” Further, the FAA provided a link to a Frequently Asked Questions page about the use of COVID-19 vaccines by pilots and air traffic controllers.

Flight crew members cannot fly for at least 48 hours after receiving the shot. They also are barred from acting “in any other capacity as a required flight crew member” if side effects are experienced after that initial waiting period, the FAA page says.

While reports of vaccine-injured pilots and other personnel are anecdotal, they are frequent, said Josh Yoder, co-founder of  US Freedom Flyers. “Now we’re starting to see the fallout from all of the people who were threatened and coerced; now they’re paying the price,” he said during the Aug. 30 Zoom meeting that included McGray and Chambers. “I hear from hundreds of people, literally every single day, from people who are vaccine-injured, often within the airline industry.”

The chief complaints are cardiac and neurological issues, he said.

An emergency defibrillator, used to treat life-threatening conditions that affect the rhythm of the heart such as cardiac arrhythmia, hangs on the wall at the Illinois State Capitol on July 1, 2014, in Springfield, Ill. AP Photo/Seth Perlman

Providing Medical Help

Yoder’s goal is to connect people with health care providers who can help mitigate alleged side effects of the shots. “I’m not here to demonize anyone who took the jab,” he said.

Chambers alleges that he is among the vaccine-injured; he developed symptoms that played a large role in his recent retirement.

Chambers described himself as “a good soldier” who followed orders. When he was sent to help protect the Texas-Mexico border, keep an eye out for terrorists or other bad actors amid a surge of migrants in early 2021, Chambers said he was told, “You’re going to have 10,000 soldiers under you, and you need to take this shot.“ His response:”OK, Roger that.“ So he took the shot. ”I’ve taken every shot they’ve given since 1983, and I trusted they would be safe and effective—and they weren’t,” Chambers said.

He said he developed horrible, persistent vertigo after being vaccinated—and he spoke to others who also blame the condition on the vaccine. “Jumping out of a plane and having vertigo just don’t work well together,” he said wryly during the Zoom call.

There is much debate over whether causal links can be found between the shots and the reported adverse effects, as listed in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

An easier-to-use collection of that data, posted by OpenVAERS.com, showed that, through Aug. 19, there were almost 1.4 million COVID-19 vaccine adverse event reports. A chart on that site shows that deaths reported to VAERS for vaccines of all types never exceeded 700 in any single year—until 2021, when the COVID-19 injections became widely available. That year, 21,884 deaths from all types of vaccines were reported to VAERS.

In any case, McGray said he feels confident that “large numbers of people have been damaged and large numbers of people have died.” He thinks the FAA “unwittingly or otherwise, joined in mandating shots that are a violation of FAA medical certification law.”

McGray and others advocate an inexpensive medical screening program for aircraft professionals, including tests for blood clotting and cardiac MRIs, along with emergency interim FAA actions including requiring at least one unvaccinated pilot and one unvaccinated flight attendant per flight.

McGray said that if he had failed to come forward, he would be violating an oath he took to ensure air safety; remaining silent “would make me complicit in any major air disaster caused by the COVID-19 crisis.”