Hagar17
Deliverin' the Goods.....
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2001
- Posts
- 231
My biggest hangup on age 65 is: Is it a safety issue or is it not? It's really simple....
If companies are required to have at least one pilot under the age of 60 in the cockpit, then there MUST be some concern about the ability of pilots over the age of 60 to operate aircraft in FAA airspace. If safety wasn't a concern, there would be no need for this rule.
ALPA will tell you the requirement to have one pilot under 60 is a compromise.
To the public (and to all of the future litigators that will represent relatives of people that are killed or injured when there is an accident involving an over 60 pilot), the air carriers will be operating less safely than they were before the change.
An old gray beard LTC once told me: Begin from the long oak table and work your way back.
Age 65 is a seniority-grab for the 55-and-over crowd. We will be operating less safely if it passes. THAT is why, with apologies to Capt Prater, the fight to keep the age at 60 is not "a done deal."
News
A 180 on retirement age -- Air Line Pilots Association now supports
retiring at 65, after decades of advocacy for age 60 limit
The nation's largest pilot union Thursday reversed course on long- held views that airline pilots should retire at age 60, joining forces with a growing group pushing for 65.
Leaders from the 40 airline unions represented by the Air Line Pilots Association voted 80 percent in favor of the change, a complete about-face of their posture for 27 years and an indication of how strongly they want their views heard if the rule is rewritten.
"If the rule is going to change, we wouldn't be able to influence that change if we remained opposed," said Pete Janhunen, spokesman for ALPA International.
"The legislation alive on the Hill does not reflect the priorities we approved today."
ALPA represents 60,000 pilots, including 4,500 at FedEx Corp., 5,000 at Northwest Airlines and 1,260 at Pinnacle Airlines.
FedEx and Pinnacle representatives voted in favor of the change; Northwest's representative voted against.
The 5,000 members of the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association are in favor of the change. The biggest group against is the 12,000- member American Pilots Association. In a recent survey by the Wilson Center for Public Research, 86 percent of APA respondents said they want the current rule preserved.
The change in mood among the nation's largest pilot group parallels in some respects the pay and pension cuts they have taken while their companies were in bankruptcy.
Flying past 60, they say, would allow them to restore a portion of the pay and benefits they've lost.
By participating on the ground level of rule-making, ALPA says it can have a say in how the new rule is crafted, including that pilots who retired at 60 not be allowed to re-enter the commercial cockpit and that benefits accrued under defined retirement accounts would not be affected. It is also adamant that members not be subjected to age-related medical testing or that a new rule not give the Federal
Aviation Administration greater access to their medical records.
The FAA adopted the retirement age if 60 in 1959. Since then, the rule has withstood numerous attacks, including in 2001 when a Senate committee passed a proposal to change it to 63.
The greatest impetus for change now is the FAA itself, which announced in late January that it was promoting the change after the International Civil Aviation Organization established 65 as the new world standard in late 2006.
"It's definitely one of the reasons we decided to take another look at the age 60 rule," said Kathleen Bergen, FAA spokeswoman.
The FAA will announce a formal rule-change proposal this year. In the meantime, both houses of Congress are working on bills to extend the age, making it closer to what many countries already accept.
According to the ICAO standard likely to be the model for change here, at least one pilot in the cockpit must be younger than 60. That provision has helped steel the position of pilots at American Airlines,
which adamantly opposes a rule change.
"If one pilot has to be under 60, even the ICAO is hedging its bets," said Gregg Overman, spokesman for the 12,000-member APA.
"In our view, it is a safety issue. At some point, there is such a thing as being too old a fly a commercial airline.
"Clearly, some are safe going beyond 60. But there is no way to determine which are," he said.
Jane Roberts
Commercial Appeal
5/25/2007
If companies are required to have at least one pilot under the age of 60 in the cockpit, then there MUST be some concern about the ability of pilots over the age of 60 to operate aircraft in FAA airspace. If safety wasn't a concern, there would be no need for this rule.
ALPA will tell you the requirement to have one pilot under 60 is a compromise.
To the public (and to all of the future litigators that will represent relatives of people that are killed or injured when there is an accident involving an over 60 pilot), the air carriers will be operating less safely than they were before the change.
An old gray beard LTC once told me: Begin from the long oak table and work your way back.
Age 65 is a seniority-grab for the 55-and-over crowd. We will be operating less safely if it passes. THAT is why, with apologies to Capt Prater, the fight to keep the age at 60 is not "a done deal."
News
A 180 on retirement age -- Air Line Pilots Association now supports
retiring at 65, after decades of advocacy for age 60 limit
The nation's largest pilot union Thursday reversed course on long- held views that airline pilots should retire at age 60, joining forces with a growing group pushing for 65.
Leaders from the 40 airline unions represented by the Air Line Pilots Association voted 80 percent in favor of the change, a complete about-face of their posture for 27 years and an indication of how strongly they want their views heard if the rule is rewritten.
"If the rule is going to change, we wouldn't be able to influence that change if we remained opposed," said Pete Janhunen, spokesman for ALPA International.
"The legislation alive on the Hill does not reflect the priorities we approved today."
ALPA represents 60,000 pilots, including 4,500 at FedEx Corp., 5,000 at Northwest Airlines and 1,260 at Pinnacle Airlines.
FedEx and Pinnacle representatives voted in favor of the change; Northwest's representative voted against.
The 5,000 members of the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association are in favor of the change. The biggest group against is the 12,000- member American Pilots Association. In a recent survey by the Wilson Center for Public Research, 86 percent of APA respondents said they want the current rule preserved.
The change in mood among the nation's largest pilot group parallels in some respects the pay and pension cuts they have taken while their companies were in bankruptcy.
Flying past 60, they say, would allow them to restore a portion of the pay and benefits they've lost.
By participating on the ground level of rule-making, ALPA says it can have a say in how the new rule is crafted, including that pilots who retired at 60 not be allowed to re-enter the commercial cockpit and that benefits accrued under defined retirement accounts would not be affected. It is also adamant that members not be subjected to age-related medical testing or that a new rule not give the Federal
Aviation Administration greater access to their medical records.
The FAA adopted the retirement age if 60 in 1959. Since then, the rule has withstood numerous attacks, including in 2001 when a Senate committee passed a proposal to change it to 63.
The greatest impetus for change now is the FAA itself, which announced in late January that it was promoting the change after the International Civil Aviation Organization established 65 as the new world standard in late 2006.
"It's definitely one of the reasons we decided to take another look at the age 60 rule," said Kathleen Bergen, FAA spokeswoman.
The FAA will announce a formal rule-change proposal this year. In the meantime, both houses of Congress are working on bills to extend the age, making it closer to what many countries already accept.
According to the ICAO standard likely to be the model for change here, at least one pilot in the cockpit must be younger than 60. That provision has helped steel the position of pilots at American Airlines,
which adamantly opposes a rule change.
"If one pilot has to be under 60, even the ICAO is hedging its bets," said Gregg Overman, spokesman for the 12,000-member APA.
"In our view, it is a safety issue. At some point, there is such a thing as being too old a fly a commercial airline.
"Clearly, some are safe going beyond 60. But there is no way to determine which are," he said.
Jane Roberts
Commercial Appeal
5/25/2007
His membership in ALPA has always been based on what ALPA could do for him, me, me FJ, FJ, me, me FJ, FJ, FJ, FJ, me, me, fj ME!!!
