Federal Aviation Administration and the Age Sixty Rule

Federal Aviation Administration and the Age Sixty Rule

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation. The FAA has the authority to regulate all aspects of civil aviation in the United States. They also have control over foreign pilots who fly into the United States. The FAA was created in 1958 under the Federal Aviation Act. In 1959 the FAA required all U.S. pilots to stop flying commercial airplanes at the age of sixty. Since this age requirement was passed, there have been a lot of concerns on how and why the FAA set the age at sixty and whether this is the correct age to have pilots stop flying commercial aircraft.

The Age Sixty Rule was generated created because there was thought to be risk involved in allowing older pilots to fly because of a decrease in personal performance. The FAA was not willing to put passengers lives in jeopardy and felt there needed to be a mandatory retirement age. put in place for all pilots who were operating a commercial airplane. To date, Mmedical science has not developed any reliable tests that to prove that aging pilots performance declines to an unacceptable level with an increase in age. . Because of this there is lack of evidence, to support the mandatory retirement age many people are pushing for the that the issue to be get readdressed and the age increased.

Changes in the Age Sixty Rule

In 1979 the House of Representatives rejected a proposal to relax the rule, and directed the National Institute of Health to conduct