Safety
Diabetes causes pilot to shift course
Plenty of people had a lot riding on Andrew Hoy’s enjoying a long and prosperous career as a professional pilot.

Plenty of people had a lot riding on Andrew Hoy’s enjoying a long and prosperous career as a professional pilot. Quite apart from his wife and kids, his bank manager had approved loans of almost £100,000 ($190,000) to fund commercial flight training for both fixed-wing types and helicopters. And his grandfather had chipped in more money when the bank could lend no more to complete a self-funded path to an airline transport pilot license.

In addition, Hoy invested four or five years of his life in completing the extensive training required for him to fly for a living. Finally settled as the captain of a Learjet 45 that he flew for UK charter operator Gold Air, he felt he had landed just where he belonged in the aviation industry and expected to go gray in the cockpit. Diabetes had other ideas.