Faa Age 60 Rule

Federal Aviation Administration and the Age Sixty Rule

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation. The FAA has the authority to regulate all aspects of civil aviation in the United States. They also have control over foreign pilots who fly into the United States. The FAA was created in 1958 under the Federal Aviation Act. In 1959 the FAA required all U.S. pilots to stop flying commercial airplanes at the age of sixty. Since this age requirement was passed, there have been a lot of concerns on how and why the FAA set the age at sixty and whether this is the correct age to have pilots stop flying commercial aircraft.

The Age Sixty Rule was generated created because there was thought to be risk involved in allowing older pilots to fly because of a decrease in personal performance. The FAA was not willing to put passengers lives in jeopardy and felt there needed to be a mandatory retirement age. put in place for all pilots who were operating a commercial airplane. To date, Mmedical science has not developed any reliable tests that to prove that aging pilots performance declines to an unacceptable level with an increase in age. . Because of this there is lack of evidence, to support the mandatory retirement age many people are pushing for the that the issue to be get readdressed and the age increased.

Changes in the Age Sixty Rule

In 1979 the House of Representatives rejected a proposal to relax the rule, and directed the National Institute of Health to conduct a study to see if there was sufficient evidence to support the rule. In 1981 the institute of health states found, "no special medical significance to age sixty as a mandatory retirement age for pilots" (Woerth). Following that review, the rule was contested in federal court. In 1989, the U.S. federal court directed the FAA to review the evidence. After review, the FAA supported keeping sixty as the mandatory retirement age for pilots.

CEO C.R. Smith

The question of mandatory retirement for airline pilots, operating under a 121 certificate, has been a topic of controversy and research for nearly fifty years. Enacted by the FAA in 1959 the federal regulation prohibits any persons from serving as a pilot of a passenger carrying aircraft "if that person has reached his sixtieth birthday." (FAR Part 121.383c) Although enacted by the FAA, the regulation is closely linked in heritage to the strong Airline Pilots Association, ALPA. "One theory suggests that while previous attempts had been made to institute an age-specific retirement rule, a 1958 labor dispute between pilots of American Airlines, then represented by ALPA, and the company's CEO, C.R. Smith, may have been the straw that broke the camel's back and provided the final impetus to implement the current regulation." (Frances)

Initially the Initially the impetusmovement to retire aging pilots came emerged from the airline carriers. During the late 1950's as new modern aircraft jets were emerging onto the aviation scene, airlines were hastening to train crews on them to expand their operating routes. Airline management quickly propagated that the older pilots, employed by the major airlines, were more difficult to train than the younger aviators who were fresh from the military, readily available and less expensive to employ. The financial burden of training, coupled with the element of time, created within the airline management a plausible reason for retiring their older pilot crews. At this time it was not as much about "safety" as it was about finances.

Many carriers attempted to create their own "mandatory retirement policies." They included Western Airlines, TWA and American Airlines. (Frances) However, each carrier was eventually forced to withdraw its policy by the union arbitrators, who supported the pilots.

The "final straw," that eventually hastened the mandatory FAA regulation, resulted when American Airlines refused to comply with the binding arbitration ruling. American Airlines, under the guidance of CEO Smith, chose to ignore the ruling, and "continued to enforce the company's mandatory retirement policy." "The carrier's disregard for the arbitrator's decision was just one of many issues that led to a twenty-day pilot strike that began on December 20, 1958. Less than two months later, as a result of their younger pilot crews, American Airlines was the first airline to provide permanent transcontinental jet service. However, But the threat to Smith's plan to retire his older pilots would hinder American's ability to aggressively expand its jet operations." (Frances) C.R Smith was creative in his quest to obtain victory and retire his older pilots. He pursued alternative paths and found an alliance in a former co-worker, General Elwood "Pete" Quesada, the head of the then newly-created agency, the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA. "In a Feb. 5, 1959 letter, Smith wrote privately to Quesada, suggesting that it might be necessary for the FAA to designate a suitable age for retirement." (Frances) Ten months later the regulations was enacted by the newly formed FAA.

Arguments to Raise the Age

Proponents for raising the mandatory retirement age for pilots bring many compelling reasons to the table. They argue that revising what they feel are unnecessarily strict, arbitrary retirement rules, would improve the lives of the pilots and protect the industry. The following issues illustrate just that.

People are living longer now. When comparing mortality rates between 1960 when the law was enacted and today, a sixty-two year-old today is similar to a fifty-five year-old in 1960 in terms of health (Gokhale). Life expectancy has jumped from an average age of sixty-seven in 1960 to an average age of seventy-five today. Proponents want to see pilots judged on ability and not an arbitrary number based on outdated historical information.

Pilots undergo regular physical examinations as well as skill evaluations in simulators and in cockpit reviews (Schlossberg). It can be argued that the infrastructure is in place to regularly evaluate individuals to ensure fitness for the job, making sweeping generalities about a person's ability based on age alone, unnecessary.

Pilots in favor of raising the retirement age also have lifestyle and financial reasons to for wanting this change. Seniority plays a key factor in the workings of an airline. Priority for better schedules, planes and routes go to the pilots with the most seniority. Pilots supporting an increase in the retirement age want to