The Pan Am settlement was ruled ‘inadequate.’

A $1.5-million settlement reached between Pan American World Airways and a federal agency representing 81 pilots forced to retire at age 60 is inadequate, a federal judge has ruled. “The settlement agreement offers claimants inadequate compensation for their years of involuntary retirement” from April, 1978, to the present and is unreasonable in view of their chances of winning the case, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Peckham said. Peckham said the agreement fell far short of the amount that the pilots might collect in a trial: between $26.7 million and $31.2 million for lost salaries, plus additional damages, and a doubling of the entire amount if Pan Am’s violations were found to be willful.