GAO Does Not Know How Many Pilots Over 60 Are Actively Flying For Airlines

In 2007, after years of debate, the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots in the U.S. was raised from 60 to 65, but a GAO study of the effects of that change says there is not enough information to say what the impact of the decision has been.

The FAA had always said the mandatory retirement age was about safety, and that their principal concern was that a pilot would become incapacitated during a flight. While there has been one recent, well-publicized example of that happening ... last June Captain Craig Lenell passed away while flying a Boeing 777 on an international route between Belgium and the U.S. ... Captain Lenell was only 60, and he was flying under an airline provision that required the co-pilot to be under the age of 60. The co-pilot in that instance landed the plane without incident in Newark, New Jersey.

The New York Times reports that according to FAA records, prior to that incident five pilots had died during commercial flights since they began tracking such data, and all were between the ages of 48 and 57. Captain Lenell was the 6th, and the oldest on record.

The extension of the age limit was required to undergo a two-year review, but the GAO said its efforts were hampered by a lack of data on how many pilots over the age of 60 are flying.  “You’d have to go to every airline to determine how many,” said Gerald L. Dillingham, the G.A.O.’s director of physical infrastructure.

The move to raise the mandatory retirement age to 65 followed international guidelines, and acknowledged that many pilots, after being forced to stop flying for U.S. carriers at 60, went on to fly for international airlines or charter operations. The GAO said further study would be beneficial, and the experiences of those pilots who continued their careers after 60 should be evaluated.

“You can look globally, look at Canada and look at pilots flying in corporate aviation and on-demand services like NetJets,” Said John Prater, president of ALPA. “The G.A.O. could expand and ask the airlines themselves. That’s an avenue they could investigate if they chose to expand their look.”

FMI: www.gao.gov