Airline Pilots and Retirement

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the aviation industry forces its pilots to retire at a certain age because of the belief that older pilots will be less able to do the job well. This paper investigates the validity of these claims. The writer asks the following questions: Are commercial airline pilots really a special case? Are these highly trained professionals really so afflicted with issues of ill health and poor performance as they enter their "golden years?" If this is so, then there must be facts and figures to support the case. If not, then we are dealing simply with a matter of a prejudice that must be combated.

Outline
Introduction
Literature Review
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The commercial aviation industry's current mandatory retirement age of sixty is based directly on FAA regulations. The FAA, like so many other government agencies, has as its primary purpose ensuring the safety and well-being of the general public. Its regulations are supposed to be based on clear, scientific evidence. If the FAA says it is not allowed, then one can assume that there is sufficient data to support the position that such and such an action would be dangerous. Yet in the case of the mandatory retirement requirement, the situation is not so simple. In fact it may even be said, that the current regulation, which was promulgated in 1959, was the result not of careful scientific inquiry, but of corporate pressure."

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