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Older pilots sue FAA: Don't ground us at age 60

By STEPHEN NOHLGREN
Published April 7, 2007

Dawn had not yet broken when UPS captain Tony Gentile landed in December at St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport on his last flight at the controls of a commercial airplane.

Co-workers and a cake waited at the terminal for an intimate retirement celebration. Fire trucks spewed streams of water for him to taxi under. His wife, Fran, operated the hand lights that guided his way.

But none of that attention dulled his frustration and anger.

A government rule, slipped into place 48 years ago, was forcing him to retire at age 60, regardless of reflexes, mental agility or his ability to get a big jet off the ground and back home safely.

"I could do it the night before. And now, because of antiquated law, I can't do it," the St. Petersburg resident recalled this week. "It's crazy."

Last week, Gentile and about 300 other members of a recently formed Senior Pilots Coalition fought back. With three members as test plaintiffs, the group sued the Federal Aviation Administration to put a quick end to the "Age 60" rule, saying it has no medical justification.

The issue has festered for years in the aviation industry. Other lawsuits have failed, with the courts reluctant to second-guess both the FAA and the country's largest pilots' union, which supports mandatory retirement.

But two recent developments should tip the balance, the older pilots say.

International standard is now at age 65

In November, the International Civil Aviation Organization Authority adopted 65 as its retirement standard. So by treaty the FAA must accept pilots up to age 65 on foreign carriers to and from the United States.

"Now we're being discriminated against not only because we are over 60 but because we are U.S. aviators," Gentile said.

In January, FAA Administrator Marion Blakely announced that the agency intends to raise the U.S. retirement age to 65, but only after two years or so of rule-making and public comment.

The senior pilots group says they can't wait. Out of roughly 80,000 commercial pilots in the country, about 100 hit 60 each month. Two years will cost the industry 5,000 of its most experienced pilots.

The lawsuit asks the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington to order the FAA to grant waivers so the three named plaintiffs can keep flying past 60. That would open the door to other pilots.

The rule began in 1959 at the request of American Airlines, then embroiled in labor conflict with its pilots. U.S. male life expectancy was 69, compared with 77 today.

The FAA cited medical evidence that people slow down as they age, but conducted no real study as to whether older or younger pilots are safer.

Gentile lifts weights daily, plays tennis and eats lots of brown rice and salad, as his taut 5-foot-8, 145-pound frame testifies.

Reflexes of youth vs. value of experience

Other than needing eyeglasses, he has never been fitter, he said, partly because all pilots must undergo physicals twice a year and pass flight simulator tests.

Though a young man's superior reflexes might carry the day for a fighter pilot, he said, commercial pilots need experience.

Even Blakely cites a 1989 United Airlines crash in an Iowa cornfield.

"The captain, Alfred C. Haynes, saved 186 people that day," Blakely recently told the National Press Club. "He flew a DC-10 that had lost hydraulics, using a throttle to make turns - somewhat like taking the steering wheel off your car and trying to steer with the gas pedal."

Haynes was 59 and had to retire a few months later.

FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette declined to comment on the lawsuit, but noted that the agency cannot change its rules until it verifies that passengers will not be endangered.

The Aerospace Medical Association, doctors and others who evaluate pilots in 70 countries, say some sudden conditions like stroke certainly increase with age, but others like bleeding peptic ulcers are more common in younger men.

Bottom line, said the doctors: With a co-pilot backing up on every flight, medical problems have never caused a commercial plane crash in the United States.

Some airlines support the Age 60 rule, others oppose it. The Air Transport Association, the trade group for the major U.S. airlines, is neutral.

The strongest support for keeping the rule comes from the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents most commercial pilots. Moving up the ranks to captain and taking charge of a flight depends strictly on seniority. Younger flight engineers and co-pilots get a crack at higher pay and more responsibility when their older colleagues retire.

Where should the line be drawn?

Some age limit is necessary, said pilots association spokesman Pete Janhunen, and age limits, by their nature, are arbitrary.

"I ask people, 'Are you comfortable with an 80-year-old pilot? A 100-year-old?' " Janhunen said. "No matter what the age is you are drawing a line."

In the salad days of airline expansion, the retirement age enjoyed widespread support among union members. Salaries and pensions were generous and most pilots were delighted to retire at 60 or even 55.

But airline bankruptcies and cutbacks that followed Sept. 11 changed that. Many veteran pilots have lost pensions and grudgingly accepted salary cuts. Some want to keep working for economic reasons.

[Last modified April 7, 2007, 02:16:41]