Originally Posted by
Half wing
I saw a chart once that plotted accidents in incidents by age in some aviation publication. It showed accidents/incidents increasing rapidly between 60-65. I remember thinking that must be how they came up with the age 60 rule. Interesting there still needs to be someone under 60 with someone over 60 in the cockpit. The chart also showed the least accidents/incidents around age 35.
They got the Age 60 rule because that is what the CEO of AA told the head of the FAA to make the rule. They were friends. Before the Age 60 rule, there was no age limit. Canada, and several other countries, now have no age limit, and Japan just changed to age 67.
I read, several years ago, that the FAA did a study, and the age 60+ pilots had the least problems.