Originally Posted by
Andy
Within months of retirement so I have no dog in this fight.
You guys are spending a lot of time targeting Congress. The FAA Administrator can simply change the retirement age, which is the course of action I'd expect at this point. Why? Because there's not enough opposition to that happening and he could make the change without much debate. There'd likely be a NPRM, which would allow public comments - I think the window's something like 60 days on comments.
BUT Bedford isn't going to do that until ICAO goes to 67. And neither will Congress change it until ICAO makes the change.
It could change as early as 2026, but my guess would be 2027 or 2028.
Without digging into legaleze this early in the am, I don't think Bedford/FAA could simply direct the change now. Since 2007, we've had a federal law which specifies the age as 65. That was done because the FAA didn't respond to the ICAO increase to 65.
FAA cannot over-ride federal law. Most FAR's are not detailed in law but a few are (such as PEDs and impaired flying).
The original age 60 limit was I'm pretty sure FAA admin action, so the FAA *could* have changed it in 2007, but they dragged their feet until congress got annoyed.