Civil Aviation Act 1990

Medical certification

27I: Revocation, suspension, amendment, and surrender of medical certificate

You could also call this:

"Changes to a pilot's medical certificate: when and how it can be paused, changed, or taken away"

You need to know about how medical certificates for people who fly planes can be changed or taken away. The Director of Civil Aviation can do several things if they think someone might not be safe to fly:

They can pause your medical certificate for a while. This is called suspension.

They can change your medical certificate by adding rules or limits. These are called conditions, restrictions, or endorsements.

If the Director is sure you can't fly safely, they can take away your medical certificate completely. This is called revocation.

The Director must tell you in writing about any of these changes. They need to explain why they're doing it.

If your certificate is suspended or changed, it usually lasts for 10 working days. The Director can make it last up to 20 working days if needed.

After this, the Director can decide to make more changes, like setting conditions for a certain time, taking away conditions, stopping you from having a medical certificate for a while, or cancelling the suspension.

If you don't agree with the Director's decision, you have 20 working days to ask for it to be looked at again.

If your certificate is taken away or suspended, you must give it to the Director, someone they choose, or a police officer.

The Director might need to tell other people involved in flying about these changes if it's important for safety.

If you don't do what the Director asks when they're checking your health, they can take away your certificate.

You can also ask the Director to cancel your own medical certificate if you want to.

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This page was last updated on 15 April 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM216309.

Topics:

Transport and travel > Air travel

27H: Investigation of medical condition of licence holder, or

"Rules for checking if pilots are healthy enough to fly safely"

27J: Appointment of convener and deputy convener, or

"Choosing leaders for aviation safety team"

Part 2AMedical certification

27IRevocation, suspension, amendment, and surrender of medical certificate

If the Director has reasonable grounds to believe that a licence holder may be unable to exercise safely the privileges to which the licence holder's medical certificate relates, the Director may, by written notice to the licence holder,—
suspend any medical certificate issued to the licence holder; or
impose or amend any conditions, restrictions, or endorsements on any medical certificate issued to the licence holder.

If the Director has reasonable grounds to believe that a licence holder is unable to exercise safely the privileges to which the licence holder's medical certificate relates, the Director must, by written notice to the licence holder,—
suspend any medical certificate issued to the licence holder; or
revoke any medical certificate issued to the licence holder; or
impose or amend any conditions, restrictions, or endorsements on any medical certificate issued to the licence holder.

If the Director has reasonable grounds to believe that a person who has been delegated authority under section 27O to issue a medical certificate has issued a medical certificate other than in accordance with this Part or the terms of the delegated authority, the Director—
may, by written notice to the licence holder,—
1. suspend any medical certificate issued to the licence holder; or
2. revoke any medical certificate issued to the licence holder; or
3. impose or amend any conditions, restrictions, or endorsements on any medical certificate issued to the licence holder; and
may, by written notice to the person with delegated authority, revoke that person's delegated authority.

Any notice issued under this section must state the grounds for the Director's decision.
A notice of suspension issued under subsection (1)(a) or subsection (2)(a) or subsection (3)(a)(i) remains in force until the Director determines what action, if any, referred to in subsection (7) is to be taken, but any such suspension expires 10 working days after the date that the suspension is imposed unless, before the expiry of that 10-working-day period, the Director extends the suspension for a further specified period not exceeding 10 working days (the aggregate suspension period may not exceed 20 working days after the date on which the suspension is imposed).
Any conditions, restrictions, or endorsements that are imposed or made under subsection (1)(b) or subsection (2)(c) or subsection (3)(a)(iii) remain in force until the Director determines what action, if any, referred to in subsection (7) is to be taken, but any of those conditions, restrictions, or endorsements expire 10 working days after the date that they are imposed unless, before the expiry of that 10-working-day period, the Director extends the conditions, restrictions, or endorsements for a further specified period not exceeding 10 working days (the aggregate period may not exceed 20 working days after the date on which the conditions, restrictions, or endorsements are imposed).
If a notice is issued under subsection (1) or subsection (2) or subsection (3), the Director may, by written notice, take 1 or more of the following actions:
impose or amend conditions, restrictions, or endorsements for a specified period:
withdraw any conditions, restrictions, or endorsements:
disqualify the licence holder from holding the medical certificate for a specified period:
revoke the medical certificate:
cancel the suspension.

If the Director revokes a medical certificate under subsection (2)(b) or subsection (3)(a)(ii) or subsection (7)(d) or subsection (11) or imposes any conditions, restrictions, or endorsements on a medical certificate under subsection (7)(a) or disqualifies a licence holder under subsection (7)(c), the licence holder has 20 working days from the date of the decision to ask the convener to review the decision under section 27L, after which time the decision may not be referred to the convener.
A person who has had his or her medical certificate revoked, withdrawn, or suspended or who is disqualified from holding the medical certificate for a specified period must surrender the medical certificate to the Director, a person authorised by the Director, or a constable.
If the Director issues a notice under this section, the Director—
must also, if practicable, notify any aviation document holder affected by the notice, other than the licence holder, if the Director reasonably considers it necessary for reasons of aviation safety; and
may notify any other affected aviation document holder.

The Director may, by written notice, revoke a medical certificate if a licence holder fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a demand under section 27H(1) or section 27H(3) or section 27H(4) within a reasonable period of time.
Any licence holder may return his or her medical certificate to the Director and ask the Director, in writing, to cancel the medical certificate.
If a licence holder asks the Director to cancel his or her medical certificate, the Director must—
cancel the medical certificate; and
update the register of current medical certificates.

Notes

Section 27I: inserted, on 1 April 2002, by section 5 of the Civil Aviation (Medical Certification) Amendment Act 2001 (2001 No 87).
Section 27I(9): amended, on 1 October 2008, pursuant to section 116(a)(ii) of the Policing Act 2008 (2008 No 72).