Age 65
 

The FAA should look at age 65 again. They are changing rest req now. After the Cont. flight, they should change this one too.

I don't think the age 65 rule is going anywhere. It's here, and it's here to stay. This isn't the first time someone has passed away while flying, and it certainly won't be the last. It happened before the 65 rule, and now it's happened after the rule. Wife says CA was in "perfect health."

Actually, according to the FAA study, all the events have occurred in white males and average age 43.

Seems the simple solution is to require males to retire at 40 (you want a safety margin).

I believe it happens several times each year, somewhere in the world. Does not appear to have caused a crash in scheduled airline service.

Any copilot/FO could fly and land the airplane safely. The second pilot is there for:

- Redundnacy, for exactly this situation.
- Double check to catch mistakes.
- Help with the workload in extremely busy situations such as operations in some large airports and system malfunctions.

Odds are very low that you would have another emergency occur on any given flight.

A few super-low time FO's might fail in this situation if they had something like an engine fire/failure with Wx down to CAT-II minimums, but I and most others would have no problem.

Received this copy of a email today,

xxxxxx,
Last week, Capt. Brian McManus, a Delta 767ER pilot, landed at JFK, drove home to Conn. The next morning he was found dead. HE WAS 49 YEARS OLD. He missed passing away in flight by about 12 hours. Perhaps the mandatory age should be 49 ! By the way, Capt McManus was a staunch advocate of keeping the age at 60, since as he once told me, "60 is when you really start to become a health risk"
xxxxxxxxx

Courant.com Obituaries

Suuure. And, exactly what FAA study are you referring to?

So, let me see if I've got this straight...You guys are now trying to prove to everyone, that pilot's are more likely to die prior to reaching age 60?

Is THAT your argument? That you don't think that someone is more likely to die after age 60, than before?

FoxHunter, if you're proving anything, you're proving that the retirement age should be lowered, and if that's what you're trying to say, I agree with you 100%. The mandatory retirement age for pilots should be 55, not 65.

Read TIC of course. But I couldn't agree more. In fact, the age should really be lowered to 50. Along with that, retirement and pension plans are sacred. No pilot group can ever agree to the termination of pension plans and retirement should be paid at 80% of what you earned in the last three years of employment. Pension plans should be guaranteed as they are in the EU for the most part. Only if the company liquidates will pension plans be adjusted. There--problem solved for everyone. You can't hurt me by agreeing to a termination of said plans and I can't hurt you by hanging around till I have one foot in the grave. Quid pro quo.