Hundreds of American war veterans, considered too old to pilot commercial planes in the U.S., are being recruited to fly for airlines in Southeast Asia.
Each year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounds thousands of pilots because of a rule that forces them to retire at age 60 for health and safety reasons.
Pilot recruiters such as Rishworth Aviation of Auckland, New Zealand, are rushing to recruit these veteran pilots to fly for Asian airlines with more lenient age restrictions.
Jack Priest, a senior consultant at Rishworth, said he knows of at least two U.S. pilots flying for Vietnam Airlines, Vietnam’s national carrier.
“We’re on the lookout for pilots who have just had their 60th birthday,” Mr. Priest said. “We help set them up with various countries around Asia.”
Furious veterans groups are demanding that the FAA extend the mandatory retirement age for pilots.
“You shake your head when you hear something like that,” said Bernard Edelman, deputy director for policy and government affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America.
“I hope Congress sees the wrongness of this rule and steps in to change it sooner rather than later,” he said.
Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and sponsor of a Senate bill to extend the retirement age to 65, said the FAA has been dragging its heels on this rule change for a long time.
“I have been trying to change this for five years,” he said. “There is a kind of bureaucracy [in the FAA] that stems from a resistance to any kind of change.”
“There should be no age limit on commercial pilots as long as they have the proficiency and clearance to fly. So we’ll do everything we can to get the FAA to fast-track this thing,” he said.
The FAA has not set a timetable for the proposed rule change, insisting that it needs more time to complete procedural requirements such as public notice and review.
“We do not know how long it will take,” FAA spokesman Les Dorr said.
“This is a significant rule change, and while we are sympathetic to the pilots who turn 60 before the rule process is completed, we can’t overturn the 40 years of precedence in this area without going through the deliberative process,” Mr. Dorr said.
Pilot groups said that procedural requirements are understandable but the FAA should exempt pilots who turn 60 before the rule change takes effect.
“Waivers make sense,” said Paul Emens, a Southwest Airlines captain and chairman of Airline Pilots Against Age Discrimination.
“Both the FAA and the Air Line Pilots Association have been warning of a pending pilot shortage … so why does it make sense to dump thousands of this country’s most experienced pilots?”
On this point, the FAA has remained firm.
“We’re not going to change the rules in the middle of the game,” said Mr. Dorr. “We have even started issuing denials to pilots who apply for exemptions.”
Mr. Emens estimates that since November, more than 1,000 pilots have been lost to U.S. commercial airlines, nearly half of them Vietnam veterans.
“We’ll probably lose another 4,000 by the time the FAA wraps all this up,” said Mr. Emens.
These are pilots like Bill Siegert, a former naval aviator who will turn 60 next year.
Mr. Siegert has flown for more than 30 years. He conducted search and rescue missions for the U.S. Navy in Southeast Asia in the 1970s and now flies Boeing 737s for Southwest Airlines.
Flying is an integral part of his life, he said. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if he can’t fly.
“My wife Gayle and I have been fighting this rule for more that four years. I’m having too much fun to leave my job because of a birthday,” Mr. Seigert said.
Congress is considering two bills that could force the FAA to extend its mandatory retirement rule.
Mr. Inhofe’s bill has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, where it is being reviewed for language discrepancies and potential flight fees unrelated to the age extension.
A House version of the bill was sponsored by Rep. Robin Hayes, North Carolina Republican, and has 250 co-sponsors.
That bill has been referred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure aviation subcommittee, although some of its language has been included in the FAA reauthorization bill.
“The 60-year-old retirement law arbitrarily pushes our most seasoned pilots out the door with no regard to their true skills,” said Mr. Hayes. “Foreign pilots have successfully worked beyond 60 for years, and our quality pilots should be able to as well.”
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