Congress now wants the US to pressure ICAO to study Age 67. Which could lead to an overhaul of pilot medical requirements.

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Wingnut150@reddit

I thought we already killed this halfassed idea.

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Can you think of the poor airline’s shareholders? With the pilot shortage they couldn’t buy a new yacht. Do you know how terrible that is? They had to use the same model two years in a row, everybody made fun of them at the club!

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hitojo@reddit

Those senators are just trying to take the pennywise, pound foolish approach to fixing the pilot shortage. Wouldn’t expect anything different from them at this point, spoiled children.

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Guysmiley777@reddit

There is no pilot shortage. Anyone telling you that is selling you something.

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hitojo@reddit

That is highly possible, now I have more reading to do. Thank you 👍🏾

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WoozyWinx@reddit

What shortage? We have furloughs happening. Also, most airlines have reduced hiring substantially!

The shortage has been over for a while!

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CASAdriver@reddit

Flown with many >60yr old pilots. Most of them fell asleep on a 1.5 hour leg. Most of them also had to ask me, a junior FO, if things they were planning was legal. Some of them got tunnel vision from the FAF inbound, put both hands on the yoke, and forgot the power levels existed, leading to an unstable approach and a horrible go-around (one I had to take controls from).

Cognitive decline is a very real thing, and upping the retirement age isn't a good decision. While yes they have a lot of past experience, what good does that do if they fall asleep and forget how to fly?

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Ropeswing_Sentience@reddit

As a non pilot, I don't even understand how this is a question...

In every industry, these issues become rampant with the old salts, and we put them at desks to compensate. Why doesn't the aviation industry understand this?

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YouWillHaveThat@reddit

$$$

They understand it. They just don’t care.

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Ropeswing_Sentience@reddit

Reducing liability by moving them to desks would save money though..

What am I missing?

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InsertUsernameInArse@reddit

You're missing replacements. Pilots are thin on the ground.

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monsantobreath@reddit

You must be new to aviation. Any risk averse change is written in blood. The margins are so tight on aviation profits I guess that they never learn.

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Ropeswing_Sentience@reddit

So, what, old pilots just haven't killed enough passengers yet?

Again, what am I missing?

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monsantobreath@reddit

Yes literally. Anything to save a buck that hasn't been in the news or an NTSB report will be tolerated or encouraged eventually.

Nearly every watershed improvement in safety came from a big bad death event or very near death event.

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Ropeswing_Sentience@reddit

Do older pilots not have way higher salaries and huge retirement plans?

Why not can them early and bring in cheap newbies?

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monsantobreath@reddit

Because you need captains and cant just replace them with cheap low hour pilots. There's been periods of pilot shortages that have affected the industry recently and the path to commercial airline pilot is long and expensive. It's not just like becoming a truck driver.

A senior pilot is thousands of hours of flying in big heavy aircraft. You don't create new ones easily.

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Ropeswing_Sentience@reddit

So, if there are a ton of incidents in the next five to ten years where aging pilots cause crashes, and they can't bring in new pilots fast enough, do you think that won't change fast?

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hapybratt@reddit

I think realistically if 1 major incident happens then the US would go back on its decision. The US has an immaculate record for commercial aviation safety at the moment so even a single major event could cause a lot of commotion in the government.

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monsantobreath@reddit

I think it will change if something serious happens but changes that related to money are hard to solve. More pilots is hard when it costs so much. Airlines can't easily fix something like that.

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YouWillHaveThat@reddit

They do not care about liability. Only money matters and only for this quarter.

The future doesn't matter. The company's reputation doesn't matter. The public's confidence in air travel doesn't matter.

Also, those desk jobs (what desk jobs?) could easily be completed by someone that makes far less than what a veteran pilot does. Especially if you can offshore it.

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Ropeswing_Sentience@reddit

Fun

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120SR@reddit

Flying with them at night is something else. We’ll be 20 degrees off runway heading and they’ll say “runway in sight”….

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ACrucialTech@reddit

And I'm sure you can't tell them anything either in the moment. You have to wait to tell them or let them figure it out on their own. They know. Just can't admit it.

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120SR@reddit

Even if they don’t have an ego, it takes dangerously wrong for them to connect the dots and do something about it

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Sneaky__Fox85@reddit

Flown with a bunch of guys within 5 years of retirement, and I'd say maybe 1 in 5 are hoping age 67 passes, but a solid 80% or more say something along the lines of "why the fuck would I want to work longer? I want to enjoy my retirement years!"

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Actual-Money7868@reddit

Do you have to retire at a certain age ?

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Sneaky__Fox85@reddit

US law dictates a mandatory retirement at age 65 for commercial airline pilots.

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Actual-Money7868@reddit

Wow that's wild, I would expect cognitive and medicals every 6 months but not that. Although I wouldn't want a 80 year old flying me across the Atlantic so I guess it does make sense at some point.

Personally I'd just go private.

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Bradyj23@reddit

I’ve flown with plenty who just plan to go out on disability for their last 2 years and collect a paycheck.

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findquasar@reddit

This is also my experience. Lots of 60+ “have a doctor who can write them a letter,” and so on.

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gibslow@reddit

Abolishing DEI hiring practices should take priority.

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TheBadgersWake@reddit

Aww whats the matter? Did you run out of pregnant women to punch in the stomach?

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gibslow@reddit

Why would I punch a pregnant woman in the stomach? I'm pro life. Weird comment.

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TheBadgersWake@reddit

Why are you so angry at the world? Who hurt you?

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gibslow@reddit

Lmao

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Genetics@reddit

You’ve never heard that it’s the pro-lifer’s preferred abortion method?

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gibslow@reddit

Think you've confused me with someone else.

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chillflyer@reddit

I retired last year from a major. Nfw, would I want to stick around til 67. Sticking around til 65 was bad enough.

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TimeSpacePilot@reddit

If they force ATC guys to retire at 56 maybe they should change it to 56 for pilots. I’ve seen cognitive decline in pilots before 50, let’s make things that much safer.

How about it guys? It’s all about maximizing safety, right? 😀

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Twa747@reddit

I wonder how many folk get caught in the net of cognitive tests to allow a very small % of pilots to go to 67.

I’d honestly say it would be a wash. More pilots would medical out before 65 as a result of expanded testing than pilots going to 67. But you know they’ve goto be wronged for that thing that happened millions of dollars ago.

I flew with the cuntiest of crusty fucks the other month. I had a 30 hour overnight and he joined me for the o’fuck is it early back to the hub go home day. ….0345 in the god damn fucking van this dude is going off about how he was furloughed and how someone he one time shared a hooker with committed suicide as a result of the furlough, continuing on to the executives at the airline who not only ordered the furlough but the gang bang on his mom.

By 0500 I was well over his stories and asked for FO quiet time….. I’m an upity millennial FO ( I’m 40 and won’t even get to sniff the left seat of a wide body before I retire, which I’m fine with)

One turn, unstable approach and a go around later and pulling into the gate dude tells me he’s going to go sit on a widebody for 7 years and to enjoy my career because it’s so much better than his………. I’m most of the time pretty calm cool and collected and have no problem eating shit for how much they pay me to sit in a little air conditioned room and go vroom vroom but this mother fucker awakened something deep within me……..

Once the brake was set checklist complete he gave me a debrief. Fine it’s in the book and surprisingly he was actually pleased with my performance…….. I played good boy……

I had gave him a debrief of a fucking lifetime, I was so god damn pissed, being called a typical millennial and him being on the left seat of something heavy for 7 years and then the comment of my career is better and starting my day with people hanging themselves. Fuck that guy

If you read this go fuck your self your widebody crews will hate your fucking ass

Something something Wendy’s drive through dumpster goto SOAR and touch grass

TLDR: 67 will knock out more folks than it keeps in Then a story

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prex10@reddit

Good lord....

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Velocoraptor369@reddit

Boomers strike again. Pilots are exposed to high levels of radiation when they fly. Not sure letting jack fly two more years because his third wife wants a divorce is in the best interests of the flying public. Epidemiological studies have shown that aircrew have higher rates of specific cancers than the general population. Some studies suggest that pilots and flight crew have a higher risk of melanoma due to exposure to UV and cosmic radiation. However, a causal link between cosmic radiation exposure and cancer has not been established.

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