Call On FAA To Speed Up Action On Age-60 Rule

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Marion C. Blakey could help to ease the current US airline pilot shortage, and minimize inconvenient airline delays, right now if she wanted to. That's the word from the Senior Pilots Coalition, a group of pilots calling on the agency to expedite the elimination of the "Age 60 Rule."

By overturning the current rule, the SPC says, the FAA could put pilots younger than the age of 65 back into the cockpit -- where they are needed.

Formed in February 2007, the SPC's motto is: "Leave No Pilot Behind." The coalition accuses the FAA to paying lip-service on working toward bringing the rule inline with ICAO standards -- which allow one pilot in the cockpit to be between 60-65 years of age, as long as the second crewmember is younger than 60. The FAA has yet to begin the rule-change procedure, though... or even announce the date for the beginning of that process.

"The FAA needs to get out of the age discrimination business and into the business of making sure there are enough pilots out there to keep our airways safe and airlines flying on schedule," says SPC President Lewis J. Tetlow, a Vietnam War vet and US Airways captain who was forced into retirement when he turned 60 on April 2 of this year. "Today, we have an artificial pilot shortage in America and needlessly dangerous, unreliable airline service that could be remedied quickly by putting available pilots back on the job now. It is clearly in the public's best interest to get these most experienced pilots flying again and tapping the added margin of safety that will come from their tens of thousands of additional flying hours."

"It is an outrage that America's airline service has degenerated to the point that we all know too well today," he added. "And it is even more outrageous that age discrimination is one of the factors that has helped speed the demise of what once was one of the proudest industries in America and one of the most highly regarded. The FAA is deliberately ignoring an obvious short-term fix that could be put into play almost immediately to significantly improve the quality and safety of airline service during the balance of this summer and in the upcoming holiday season."

The SPC says an estimated 5,000-8,000 experienced pilots will lose their jobs soon if the FAA doesn't act quickly on the Age 60 issue. Under current guidelines, pilots who are forced to retire at age 60, before any change in the mandatory retirement age to 65, won't get their jobs back unless they applied and were hired as new pilots. They would forego any prior seniority.

FMI: www.seniorpilotscoalition.org