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Chair of Senate Aging Committee Calls for End to
Mandatory Retirement of Pilots at 60
Sept. 14, 2004 - U.S. Senator Larry Craig, chairman
of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, said today that
protecting the flying public should always be the focus of government.
But at the same time he said that the time has come to retire the
mandatory rule that requires pilots to retire at age 60.
Public safety is clearly the most important policy
consideration in evaluating mandatory retirement rules. But those of us
who study this issue know there has been a dynamic increase in longevity
and a trend toward healthy aging over the past half century, Craig
said. The mandatory retirement rules for pilots were established in
1959 45 years ago. I believe that we now need to look for ways to
enable healthy and able airline pilots to continue to pilot commercial
aircraft.
Craigs comments came at a hearing of the committee
concerning mandatory federal retirement rules. Those rules impact over
1.6 million people in the United States, most of whom are airline
pilots, air traffic controllers, fire fighters or law enforcement
personnel.
Dr. Russell B. Rayman, Executive Director of the
Aerospace Medical Association testified that at least 24 nations allow
pilots to fly aircraft past age 60.
To our knowledge, there has been no adverse effect
upon flying safety, Rayman said.
Although medical sudden incapacitation is always a
possibility (at any age), we believe it is a vanishingly small risk,
even for air transport pilots who would be over age 60, Rayman said in
his prepared remarks. It might also be added that there has never been
a US air carrier accident due to medical causes. The Aerospace Medical
Association spokesman stated that there is insufficient medical
evidence to suggest restriction of pilot certification based on age
alone.
But Eugene R. Freedman, speaking on behalf of the
National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said that air traffic
controllers are in a different category, and that is why federal
regulations require controllers to retire at age 56.
The risks of stress levels, potential health
problems, and declining cognitive abilities are the same today that led
Congress to set retirement mandates for controllers over 30 years ago,
he said.
Abby Block of the federal Office of Personnel
Management noted in her testimony that OPM recently sent to Congress an
in-depth report about mandatory retirement issues involving law
enforcement. In that document OPM said that changes are needed to
maintain a "young and vigorous" corps of law enforcement officers, while
providing greater flexibility to deal with law enforcement needs in the
post 9/11 world. The federal personnel office is also reconsidering the
mandatory retirement rules as part of the overall assessment of pay and
benefits for law enforcement agencies.
For more on the hearing
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