Hi. This is Ed Goldstein with the AVS Flyer
and welcome to This Month in Aviation History with Dr.
Terry Kraus, the FAA historian.
Today we're going to discuss the age 60 retirement rule for air carrier pilots.
And Dr.
Kraus, when did the FAA issue this mandate?
Well, when Elwood Quesada became the Federal Aviation Agency's
first administrator in late 1958, commanded
a vigorous campaign to improve aviation safety.
And one of its more controversial moves, Quesada instituted
FAA age 60 rule, which barred pilots who had reached their 60th birthday
from piling into aircraft engaged in certified air carrier operations
or in large aircraft, engaged in supplemental air carrier operations.
FAA declared at the time that a progressive
deterioration of certain physiological functions
normally occurred with age and that sudden incapacity,
because of certain medical defects such as heart attacks and strokes,
became significantly more frequent in any group, reaching 60.
The rule, of course, infuriated pilots and resulted
in a storm of complaints from the Airline Pilots Association, or ALPA.
Captain John Deacon Probably speaking for the majority of pilots,
told a reporter after Quesada’s ruling, quote, I hope this
moron has a special hot place reserved for him, end quote,
because of his unfair, arbitrary and illogical rule that has now clipped
the wings of thousands of fine young 60 year olds.
And responding to such criticism, Quesada told Time magazine that when a passenger
buys a ticket for a flight, they don't know who's going to fly them.
The public acts in faith.
Faith in the system.
And I'm here to represent the public.
And dammit, the public will be protected.
So were there challenges to the rule?
Yes, many.
In 1978, for example, ALPA filed a petition with the FAA
charging the rule was invalid and requested that it be revoked.
The FAA refused and ALPA took their case to federal court in January 1974, a U.S.
appeals court upheld the rule.
Subsequent years saw further legal challenges to the rule,
but the federal courts continued to uphold it.
At his confirmation hearing in 1977, FAA Administrator
Langhorne Bond agreed to take a new look at the age 60 rule.
On August 4th, 1977,
he signed a policy paper reaffirming the rule.
Citing a new study by FAA's Office of Aviation Medicine.
The policy paper concluded that a medical examination
could not sufficiently predict the future health
and functional capacity of a pilot who reached age 60.
Did Congress get involved in the controversy?
Absolutely.
The issue came before Congress in 1979
as more and more airline pilots were reaching 60.
A trend that was expected to increase.
The Pilots Rights Association, a group of some 300
older airline pilots, waged a strong campaign against the rule.
As a result, in late 1979, Congress
required the National Institutes of Health to study the rule.
In August of
1981, the National Institute on Aging submitted
its report to Congress with three basic recommendations
The age 60 rule be retained for major airline pilots.
FAA extend the rule to all other pilots engaged in carrying passengers for hire,
and FAA conduct a systematic program to collect the medical
and performance data necessary to consider relaxing the rule.
In 1995, the FAA extended the age
60 to commuter pilots, further infuriating pilot groups.
Well, did the FAA eventually change the rule?
Yes, they did.
In a luncheon speech at the National Press Club on January 30th, 2007,
FAA administrator Marion Blakey proposed a rule change
to allow pilots to fly until they were 65 years of age.
Under the proposal, if one pilot on a flight was older
than 60, the other pilot in the cockpit would have to be younger than 60.
Before this change could become official, however, FAA would have to issue
a notice of proposed rulemaking and ask for public comment.
The agency cautioned it could take years to pass a new regulation.
How big do the hoping to end the controversy once and for all?
On December 11th, 2007, the House of Representatives
approved a bill to let pilots fly until they reached the age of 65, provided
they took medical tests twice a year.
It also mandated airlines perform additional proficiency checks on pilots
over 60.
The following day, the Senate passed a similar bill.
On December 13th, 2007,
almost 47 years after the age 60 rule first went into effect, President George
Bush signed into law the Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act.
The new law allowed pilots
to serve as a passenger airline pilot until the age of 65.
The law required air carriers to provide FAA approved training
to pilots over 68, with specific emphasis on initial and recurring training
and to evaluate the performance of those pilots every six months.
Dr. Kraus, thank you very much for that very informative look at this important
episode in aviation safety history, and we look forward to seeing
everybody else on another edition of this month in aviation history.
Thank you much.