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FU Paul Emens

58-year-old Paul Emens has been an airline pilot for 30 years. But time is running out on the career he loves.

As CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports, under current FAA rules, Emens must retire in less than two years at age 60—an age when most other Americans are still on the job.

"If a person is healthy, if he's competent, then he should be able to work," Emens says. "And what they're doing is retiring us at the age of 60, regardless of our health or competency."

Age 60 has been the pilots' limit since 1960—a time when 707's ruled the skies and the life expectancy of men was 69 years. Now, the FAA says it agrees with Captain Emens that the retirement age should be raised to 65.

"It's the right thing to do because the experience base of our older captains is really something we need to take advantage of," says FAA administrator Marion Blakey.

Supporters point to the heroics of United Airlines Captain Al Haynes who—at age 57—miraculously piloted his badly crippled jet to a fiery landing in Sioux City in 1989, saving more than half of the people on board.

But just ten days ago, the 58-year-old pilot of a Continental jet died at the controls, forcing the co-pilot to land the plane.

Beyond health, there is an economic debate. Frustrated younger pilots like Warren Booth say their promotions will be blocked if more senior pilots hang on.

"They'll get to sit there for another five years while I'm sitting there trying to get to the bigger airplanes and the bigger paycheck," Booth says.

Older pilots have their own paycheck worries. Financially strapped airlines have drastically cut pensions, or, in some cases, eliminating them entirely, making early retirement no longer affordable.

To the FAA and passengers though safety, not money, is the issue.

It could take more than year for the new age 65 limit to take effect. So the oldest airline pilots, like Paul Emens, are still up in the air facing a fast-closing deadline that could ground them forever.

The same Paul Emens that has been out on Medical Leave for years!!
 
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