ALPAAD AGE 60 RULE TALKING POINTS
Apr 18, 2003
Author: Paul Emens

January 26, 1999

The AARP Public Policy Agenda - 1998 states "The Federal Aviation Administration’s. "age 60 " rule should be eliminated and replaced with regulations or laws that determine each individual pilot's competency and fitness on the basis of factors related to safety, as is the case for younger airline pilots. " Pilot fitness for flight should be the determining factor rather than chronological age.

Safety/Experience is the most determining factor in aviation safety. The Hilton Study (sponsored by the FAA) noted each study group showed "a decrease in accident rate with age, with a leveling off for older pilots. " The more time a pilot had in the cockpit and the more current the time (as in airline pilots' consistent monthly schedules) the better the safety record.

Dr. Susan Baker (Professor of Health Policy and Management; Head of the Faculty of Health and Public Policy at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health) served on the FAA's Age 60 Rule Advisory Panel. Said Dr. Baker, "I would rather ride with an age 63 pilot than an age 28 pilot."

Dr. Dennis Shanahan (world authority on aviation medicine, injury analysis and prevention; called in by the, NTSB after TWA 800 crash): "there are two critical items for pilots that cannot be taught and that do not deteriorate with age until quite late in life for most people, these items are experience and judgment."

Australian Chief Judge: "Given the time and effort expended in America examining the Age 60 Rule, it is remarkable to say so, but it seems to me that none of the cited studies supports any conclusion about the relationship between that rule and safety. " Australia's Age 60 Rule was abolished.

Senator John McCain, at a Senate hearing, stated "One obvious was to increase experience levels of cockpit crews would be to increase the discriminatory maximum age for pilots, which is limited by the "Age 60 Rule".

Pilot Shortage: Pilot retirements are creating a shortage of pilots at the lower echelons of the airline community. Retirements will rise sharply in 2003 and remain high.

From ALPA's Air Line Pilot Magazine, May 1998: "But large numbers of Captains will be retiring from most U.S. carriers, and indeed European ones as well, at the turn of the century and soon after. This will cause the majors to hire a further mass of new pilots in a relatively short period of time. The effects on the air transportation system could be disastrous as a sudden surge of poor caliber pilots is dragged from the bottom of the system, perhaps all the way to the majors. The real losers will be the air-taxi and regional operators that must fly their aircraft with the pilots the majors cannot attract."

Walter Coleman, president of, the Regional Airline Association, June 11, 1998: "Our members, depending on where they are, are experiencing turnover rates of between 5% and 30% per year."

Military Readiness: Huge airline hiring rates are stripping the military of experienced pilots. The Air Force is retaining only 1 in 10 'heavy aircraft' pilots. The Navy is expected to be unable to meet manning goals by Year 2000. Training costs for the Air Force in the past two years have totaled .5 billion (resulting in expensive rookies).

ALPA: The foremost opponent of changing the rule (along with the Allied Pilots' Association) is primarily concerned with pension rules. ALPA is expected to attempt to block a change. ALPA vigorously opposed this rule for 20 years, then changed direction as a result of demographics and contractual language. They now suggest the rule cannot be changed because it cannot be proven a change will make the system safer, thus raising the bar to utopian levels. See Pilot Shortage above for conflict of interest.

Former ALPA president Hank Duffy, "Pilots over age 55 comprise only 5-6% of the total membership. The other 95% selfishly view the forced retirement of older pilots as their guaranteed path and a God-given right to their own early promotion."

ALPA is not unified on this issue. No open referendum has ever been done. Policy ignores those who wish to fly as a matter of right and principal and ignores those who came to their airlines late in life; who will never achieve maximum pension goals. Pilots of American West Airlines petitioned national ALPA to revisit the rule. They were denied.

ALPA does not represent all unions (such as SWAPA) or all pilots.

Quote of Note: Senator Robert Dole, at a campaign dinner in New Hampshire, said the rule was "nonsense and I am against it.

Foreign Countries/Carriers: Many are changing their age rule, leading rather the following the U.S. Countries now allowing over age 60 airline pilots: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Fiji, Germany, Iceland, h-an, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, Peru, Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland,. Turkey, United Kingdom, Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Spain, Portugal and Italy will join this list in 1999.

Japan initiated a five year study on aging. It was terminated after three years of no derogatory data. Retirement age for their pilots was raised to 63. They are contemplating 65.

EEOC: Has fought the rule since 1984 and has successfully eliminated it in most of the U.S. aviation community. Corporations such as Boeing and International Paper have modified their retirement requirements. FAA pilots can fly past the age of 60. The EEOC's official position is that the rule makes no scientific or medical sense. See their document on this site.

Captain Paul Emens, Chairman Pilot’s Against Age Discrimination Governmental Affairs Committee [SWA] Annapolis, MD 21403