IAF changes rules to include vision-corrected candidates

Beginning this year, IAF has relaxed selection rules after which candidates with poor vision acuity can fly helicopters and transport planes after undergoing corrective surgery like LASIK and Radial Keratotomy.
The only condition is that the vision-corrected candidates have to meet basic post-surgery requirements set up by the IAF. Earlier, the IAF refused candidates if they had undergone these procedures to improve vision.
“From this year onwards, we have relaxed the physical requirement regarding vision for all service officers in the graduate entry level….” Lt-Gen Yogendra Singh, Director General, Armed Forces Medical Services and senior Colonel Commandant of the force, said.
The IAF’s condition comprises completion of one year of the vision-correction surgery at the time of application, post-surgery eyeball length of not more than 25.5 mm and cornea thickness of not less than 450 microns.
A candidate, after completing one year of having undergone LASIK surgery (for correcting myopia and hypermetropia) and meeting the other requirements, can be considered for flying a helicopter or a fixed-wing aircraft, says senior advisor (Opthalmology) at the Army Hospital Research and Referral, Colonel JKS Parihar. LASIK is a surgery for correcting and lessening the defect or damage to the eye.
This relaxation is applicable for “Pilots flying transport aircraft and helicopters and all officers in the technical field, Aeronautical Engineers, basic Air Staff, Non-Technical staff, Ground Duties Officers, Security officers and Meteorology officers and officers in the medical field of the IAF,” Air Marshal P Madhusoodanan, DGMS (AIR) said.
However, he made it clear that “the relaxation will not be applicable at the entry level at National Defence Academy.”
18/01/09 Agencies/TimesNow.tv