Three U.S. Airline Pilots File Suit to Force FAA to End Age Discrimination Under Controversial 'Age 60 Rule' That Threatens to Ground Thousands of America's Best Pilots

U.S. airline passengers will lose the services of an estimated 5,000 of this nation's most experienced and trusted pilots -- many of them Vietnam War and Gulf War I veterans -- if the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to drag its feet on ending its discriminatory "Age 60 Rule," according to a legal action filed late last week by three airline pilots nearing the age of 60. The legal action is being supported by the newly created Senior Pilots Coalition (SPC), a fast-growing group of more than 300 pilots who are seeking to end age discrimination at U.S. airlines.

Under the proceeding that demands immediate action by FAA Administrator Marion Blakey to overturn the "Age 60 Rule" imposed in 1959, the three pilots -- Lewis J. Tetlow, of Bedford, N.H., Richard C. Morgan of Charlottesville, VA., and Joseph G. LoVecchio, Lancaster, PA. -- are asking the court to direct Blakey "to issue a decision on each respondents pending request for an exemption from a regulation forbidding him from flying as a pilot for his employer after his sixtieth birthday."

With 42 years of flying experience, Tetlow -- who is a captain for US Airways, a U.S. Air Forces Academy graduate, and a Vietnam War veteran -- reaches his 60th birthday today (April 2, 2007). Morgan -- a Navy pilot from the Vietnam era and a captain at US Airways -- will be 60 on May 21, 2007. US Airways Captain LoVecchio has more than 20,000 of civil and military flight time; he will be 60 on January 30, 2008. Tetlow is the president and treasurer of the SPC.

The Senior Pilots Coalition is warning that "Age 60 Rule" is threatening to strip America's airways of 5,000 or more of its most experienced pilots over the next two or so years.

With an estimated 400 American pilots already arbitrarily forced out due to age at the rate of about 100 per month, the Senior Pilots Coalition notes: (1) the "Age 60 Rule" was never based on scientific evidence about the age and health of pilots; (2) Americans now live considerably longer and are significantly healthier than they were in 1959; (3) airline pilots, particularly those who have undergone military training, are an extraordinarily fit group, particularly when compared to the rest of the population; and (4) there is no known case on the record of an age related in- air incident or accident attributed to the age of a pilot.

Tetlow said: "The 'Age 60 Rule' is an open-and-shut example of age-based discrimination of the worst and most blatant kind. Trust me when I say that these experienced and well-seasoned professionals are not the pilots that Americans want to see given their walking papers."

Commenting on one little-known aspect of airline industry practices, Tetlow added: "I am confident most Americans who fly for business or personal reasons would be outraged to learn that foreign commercial air carriers are permitted to fly within the United States with pilots over the age of 60. This is simply intolerable. U.S. airline pilots are unceremoniously given the boot at age 60, while our airspace remains completely open to non-U.S. commercial airline pilots over the age of 60."

The legal action was filed by the pilots as a last resort, after an unproductive meeting with FAA officials, who indicated that action on the "Age 60 Rule" rule would not be forthcoming in the foreseeable future. As the court filing notes: "On Friday, March 23, 2007, Petitioners Tetlow and Morgan (and others) met with the Deputy Associate Administrator and other ranking officials of Respondent FAA. The FAA's Deputy Associate Administrator informed them (1) that in the usual course of business waiver applications are acted on within 120 days of receipt; (2) changes to ['the Age 60 Rule'] are under consideration; (3) no action on waiver applications would be taken 'piecemeal' because the regulation may be changed; and (4) it would be September before the FAA is likely to finish its internal consideration of changes to [the 'Age 60 Rule'] and months thereafter before a rule change, if any, would occur."

To date, the FAA has paid only lip service to the notion of ending age discrimination under the "Age 60 Rule." Even though FAA Administrator Blakey acknowledged in a major speech on January 30, 2007 that "the time has come" to change the "Age 60 Rule," her office has proposed a vague timetable for action and has refused to grant individual waivers of exemptions to the rule during the interim -- assuming that the FAA ever decides to take action on the 48- year-old rule.

For a complete copy of the legal filing by the three pilots, go to http://www.SeniorPilotsCoalition.org.

ABOUT THE SPC

Founded in February 2007, the fast-growing Senior Pilots Coalition already has more than 300 members from the across the United States. SPC is a national pilot organization dedicated to ending age discrimination in the U.S. commercial airline industry. A Web site for the Association is now under development at http://www.SeniorPilotsCoalition.org.