Well, we don’t want somebody blind flying the plane, sure,” he explained. “Let’s say you had somebody diagnosed at age two, they haven’t looked after their diabetes, so maybe their vision is compromised. He said the justification given at the time was that people who are diagnosed as children, sometimes develop complications later on in life. Senior, who is also a professor of medicine at the University of Alberta, said there are no medical reasons why somebody with pre-existing diabetes cannot fly a plane. But then also just that resigned or depressed thought of, ‘But you can’t beat the system.’” Peter Senior, an endocrinologist, “was something along the lines of admiring the youthful enthusiasm, and then I think it was the recognition of, well, he does have all the ingredients, he could be that person. But it wasn’t until the second year university, while having a conversation with a family friend, who was sharing his experience as a pilot, that a switch flicked in McDonald.
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“I said, ‘If I can’t fly them, I’ll design them.’”īecause the rules allowed it, he did learn how to fly a plane recreationally. He decided to pursue mechanical engineering at the University of Alberta instead. McDonald had been intent on following the path set by his father, a commercial pilot for Air Canada. However, people with pre existing diabetes were still barred from even applying. The creation of these guidelines led to an easing of restrictions on flying for those with diabetes, first in 1995 for recreational pilots, then in 2001 for seasoned pilots who had been diagnosed with diabetes in the middle of their careers. Pilots with diabetes have to check their blood glucose levels 15 minutes before flight, every hour of the flight and 30 minutes before landing. “The control criteria include medical screening, annual recertification requirements and medical certificate restrictions, including mandatory in-flight blood sugar monitoring and, if applicable, a second pilot,” Transport Canada spokesperson Alex Desjardins wrote in an email. However, in the 1990s, Transport Canada started looking into developing guidelines to allow pilots with diabetes to fly. The concern has been that low blood glucose levels could result in loss of consciousness during flight. “(After diagnosis) the first thing they tell you is, ‘You can be whatever you want, except for a commercial airline pilot and be in the military,’” McDonald recalled. Individuals with diabetes also have to be careful to take insulin in the right amounts, as taking too much can cause damage to the body in the long run, and taking too little can result in a coma. Anything, from the food we eat to the activity we do, can affect blood sugar levels. People living with Type 1 diabetes have to monitor their blood sugar levels from going too high. Before the discovery of insulin in the 1920s, the disease had been fatal. It is a disease that destroys the cells that make insulin, which is responsible for regulating blood-glucose levels. McDonald was 14 years old when he was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. It hadn’t really sunk in, but then, today, sitting in the seat, putting the power levers up to take off, it kind of sunk in that, ‘Oh wow, I’m here,’” McDonald said.Īscending ever higher, his plane broke through the dark clouds into sunshine, a symbolic moment for McDonald, whose own journey to this milestone has been a long and challenging one. His trip Tuesday made him the first Canadian with pre-existing Type 1 diabetes to fly a commercial plane. The short hop across the Prairies was fairly routine, as commercial flights go, but it was historic for McDonald.
On a dark, cold and snowy morning this week, wearing a black and white pilot’s uniform, McDonald flew his first commercial flight - a 74-seator Bombardier Dash 8 - more than 600 kilometres from Calgary to Saskatoon before turning around and flying back. EDMONTON-Austen McDonald has kept his blood sugar levels down - and soared.
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