Airline Pilots Fight FAA Forced Retirement Ruling Dr. David J. Demko, gerontologist and editor, AgeVenture News Service, Boca Raton, Florida 07-25-07

It's an “Open-and-Shut Case of Age Discrimination” say America's most experienced pilots. Foreign pilots, age 60-plus are permitted to fly in the United States. But, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) forces America's 60-plus pilots into involuntary retirement. The Senior Pilots Coalition is warning that this “Age 60 Rule” is threatening to strip America’s airways of 5,000 or more of its most experienced pilots over the next two or so years. Senior pilots argue that the “Age 60 Rule” was never based on scientific evidence about the age and health of pilots. The newly created Senior Pilots Coalition (SPC), a fast-growing group of more than 300 pilots who are seeking to end age discrimination at U.S. airlines. U.S. airline passengers will lose the services of an estimated 5,000 of this nation’s most experienced and trusted pilots. Many of the seasoned pilots are veterans of Vietnam War and Gulf War. SPC president, Lewis J. Tetlow is the president said, “The ‘Age 60 Rule’ is an open-and-shut example of age-based discrimination of the worst and most blatant kind. Trust me when I say that these experienced and well-seasoned professionals are not the pilots that Americans want to see given their walking papers.” With an estimated 400 American pilots already arbitrarily forced out due to age at the rate of about 100 per month, the Senior Pilots Coalition notes: the “Age 60 Rule” was never based on scientific evidence about the age and health of pilots; Americans now live considerably longer and are significantly healthier than they were in 1959; airline pilots, particularly those who have undergone military training, are an extraordinarily fit group, and there is no known case on the record of an age related in-air incident or accident attributed to the age of a pilot. Commenting on one little-known aspect of airline industry practices, Tetlow added: “I am confident most Americans who fly for business or personal reasons would be outraged to learn that foreign commercial air carriers are permitted to fly within the United States with pilots over the age of 60. This is simply intolerable. U.S. airline pilots are unceremoniously given the boot at age 60, while our airspace remains completely open to non-U.S. commercial airline pilots over the age of 60.” For a complete copy of the legal filing by the three pilots, go to www.SeniorPilotsCoalition.org

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