Thu, Aug 02, 2007
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.
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