More on Age and Airline Pilots

This wonderful comment by "Jodi an Atlanta Realtor" is really what blogging is all about.

Her insights really added to my understanding of this issue.

Nice.

Very nice.

As the spouse of an airline pilot I couldn't agree with you more. My husband says that statistically there was never any real basis for the old FAA regulation requiring pilots to retire at 55. Just in the last year that was pushed back by the FAA to age 60. Most of the rest of the world had already gone to the "age 60 rule". Statistics show that generally as age increases airline pilots have fewer incidents and accidents. Another key to the successful ditching of flight 1549 is the fact that the captain has had glider experience. Although we still don't know who actually performed the landing. It very well could have been the first officer at the controls as it may have been his "leg". Many airlines encourage captains to give the flight controls to first officers when dealing with emergencies. First and foremost the captain is a manager and it is very difficult to manage and assess a situation if you are trying to run checklists, talk on the radio, make announcements to the passengers, and fly the airplane. It will be interesting to see what the crew has to say when they are released to the media.