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Letter to the editor

Forced retirement becomes an issue for pilots

With pay and benefits decreasing, the Air Line Pilots Association now wants the FAA to consider extending its mandatory retirement beyond age 60.

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published November 25, 2004

US Airways pilot Jim Hamilton will reluctantly retire next week after 38 years of flying airliners.

He would rather stay in the cockpit a few more years to shore up a nest egg that cracked when his struggling employer slashed his salary and dumped his pension plan. But next July, Hamilton turns 60 - the age when the federal government forces airline pilots to hang up their wings.

"Sixty-three would have been nice," says Hamilton, who lived in Tierra Verde and Tarpon Springs before moving to a home near Jacksonville last summer. "No one knows how long you'll live or if you'll outlive your money."

His union, the Air Line Pilots Association, has defended the mandatory retirement age for more than two decades as good for air safety and pilots' careers.

But with so many financially ailing airlines cutting pay and reducing retirement benefits, the world's largest pilots union is taking another look at the Federal Aviation Administration rule adopted in 1959 to ensure safety.

The FAA says age 60 remains its best determination of when the decline in a pilot's health and mental abilities could jeopardize flight safety. The union doesn't dispute that a pilot's skills deteriorate with age or that the FAA should set a retirement age, said spokesman John Mazor.

But with advances in medical testing and decisions by other countries to raise their mandatory retirement age, the union needs to reconsider whether 60 is still the right benchmark, he said.

Mazor acknowledged some of the union's 64,000 members - including pilots at United, Delta, Northwest, Continental and US Airways - are pushing for a change because the airline industry's financial crisis has hit them in the wallet. A few extra earning years would help. The union plans to poll pilots about the rule next spring.

"We'd have to be convinced (a change) would not affect safety," he said. "But there's enough there to warrant a re-examination. Everybody understands that age 60 is an arbitrary number."

The FAA says that while the age when an airline pilot becomes too old to fly varies from person to person, there's no way to predict when an individual reaches that point. The agency can't support changing the age 60 rule without evidence it won't make flying less safe.

Critics contend the original idea behind the rule, to protect against a pilot dying at the controls and crashing an airliner, is as dated as a '50s car with tail fins. People in their 60s are more active and live longer today, they say.

Pilots face rigorous mental tests to get hired and must pass physical exams - every six months for a captain - plus an annual electrocardiogram for all pilots after they turn 40, said Kit Darby, a 58-year-old United pilot who runs a pilot career consulting business called AIR Inc.

Their cognitive ability also is regularly evaluated during check rides, simulator training and during flights with fellow pilots, said Ike Eichelkraut, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.

"If there's going to be something wrong with you, you're not going to keep it a secret," he said.

Pilots have long been divided over the issue, especially by age. Career advancement is tied closely to seniority.

Younger pilots have supported the rule because it has cleared the way for their more rapid advancement. Older pilots not ready to retire argue the age 60 limit amounts to age discrimination.

The Air Line Pilots Association fought the rule for 20 years, but reversed its position in 1980. Union leaders realized they couldn't overcome FAA opposition and were able to negotiate generous retirement benefits to compensate members, said Mazor.

Others say the switch was all about politics. Union leaders saw that airline deregulation would bring new airlines and a flood of younger pilots hungry for promotions, says Bert Yetman, president of Professional Pilots Association, which advocates raising the retirement age.

"They figured the young pilots would stir up a hornets nest," he said. "The saying has always been, "Get that old (guy) out of my seat.' "

But the economic hardships inflicted on members could be changing the political dynamics, Yetman said, evidenced by the union's decision to look again at the age 60 rule. "It shows a division in their ranks," he said.

The Air Line Pilots Association launched an educational campaign last month and expects to poll a sample of members by March. Legislation to raise the retirement age failed in 2001, with ALPA opposed. But a change in the union's position could tip the scales in Congress, Darby said.

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.

[Last modified November 25, 2004, 00:13:09]