Your editorial (Flight International, 24-30 September) makes a methodological mistake in assuming that the decrease of incapacitation risk through age capping automatically leads to an increase in air safety. This is not so because the loss of 20,000h of experience with the removal of a healthy pilot at age 60 far outweighs the small gain on the incapacitation risk.
The correlation of a pilot's age with accidents shows clearly that older pilots have fewer accidents. Beyond age 60, the data for further analysis is drying up because of implementation of the present International Civil Avation Organisation rule. A few countries are an exception and their experience shows no trend inversion at age 60.
Pilots' pension schemes have been built around age 60 and pilots unions favour retirement at this age simply because this is the only way to make room for promotion in an industry going into recession.
Most of the pilots who don't feel physically or intellectually fit are leaving on their own. The ones who try to hang on with some degree of cognitive impairment have a good chance of being stopped at their next simulator checks. If a pilot demonstrates that he can still do the job in the most demanding conditions, he should not be stopped simply because he is reaching an arbitrary age. The present JAA rule is therefore a wise and well-balanced regulation.
Lucien Friob
Walhain, Belgium
Source: Flight International
