Dooker
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Posts
- 344
Here we go again ...By Alan Rekood, Air Transportation Journal
WASHINGTON — Federal aviation regulators announced Saturday that they intend to raise the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots to 70. The proposal, which comes on the heels of a 2007 law that raised the age limit to 65, faces possible opposition and could take several years to put in place.
The Federal Aviation Administration wants to let pilots fly until 70, provided one of the two cockpit crewmembers on every flight is under 45 and a working automated external defibrillator is within easy reach. The proposal would allow U.S. pilots to fly five years longer than their peers in other nations, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said.
"It's time to close the book on age 65," Babbitt said in a speech before the National Press Club. "The retirement age for airline pilots needs to be raised. Again."
The FAA examined safety data and could find no evidence that pilots who reach 70 are any less safe than younger pilots, aside from the fact that they need to get up to urinate much more often and often miss radio calls because they are practically deaf, Babbitt said.
"But that's why you have two pilots up there," Babbitt added. "Think of it as a buddy system where the younger pilot looks out for the older one, sort of like the way one helps an elderly person across the street."
Several hundred pilots older than 65 fly corporate jets, where no such restrictions exist, he said.
“Some of those guys are extremely old,” Babbitt said. “We’re talking ancient, and you don’t see them killing anyone much.”
It could take up to four years before the proposal becomes law, Babbitt said. He has asked an industry advisory group to first study how to write a new retirement rule. Advocates of the change reacted with anger at the lengthy schedule.
Southwest Airlines Capt. Paul Emens, 61, said it was "unacceptable" to take so long to adopt a rule. Emens estimated that 3,600 to 5,000 airline pilots would be forced to retire in the next two to three years.
“These are guys who need all the money they can lay their hands on,” Emens said. “I defy you to try to support a wife, an ex-wife, and pay for a house down in Baja in today’s economy without a senior airline captain’s salary. It can’t be done.”
