Looking at the raw numbers in Mr. Wanttaja's graph - from 07 onward, I get 22% of the events are "sport pilots" (ignoring invalid medical). I doubt that 22% of all flying is done under the sport pilot rule, so that would suggest some increase in risk if the medical were eliminated totally. How much would be unknown since there is no way to know how many pilots are flying under the sport pilot rule. Of course if one were to consider the cost/ benefit for the FAA medical process, well...
Huge assumption: by "Sport Pilot" Mr. Wanttaja means someone flying an LSA without a medical (such as myself) and not just those with an actual sport pilot certificate.
Actually you don't see the alcohol, psychiatric disease ("but I am perfectly fine!"), PTSD, and general idiocy that I get to see. However, I will be first to say, the Agency does not have much to offer the 3rd class airman.
There is no perfect answer.
However I will say, that I have been skeptical about the 5 year report requirement (7/2021) to congress, since Basic med was instituted . They never voted funds to support the data gathering....
