Court Reinstates Challenge to 60-Year Rule for Pilots : Boeing Must Prove Validity of Age Limit
The Boeing Co. must convince a jury that it has valid reasons for forcing its test and training pilots to stop flying at 60, the age at which commercial airline pilots are grounded, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled on Wednesday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated an age-discrimination suit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the Seattle airplane manufacturer.
The suit had been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle, who held that a Federal Aviation Administration rule barring pilots from flying large commercial passenger planes after age 60 was based on safety concerns that should apply equally to pilots flying those planes for the manufacturer.
FAA attorneys said Wednesday that the agency’s restrictions on airline pilots are based on findings that people over 60 may be more susceptible to certain types of medical problems than younger people.
But Chief Appeals Court Judge James Browing said in the court’s 3-0 decision to remand the case back to the district court that the FAA had specifically refused to apply the rule to other fliers, such as test pilots.
He noted that the EEOC had offered evidence that, prior to 1980, Boeing employed pilots 60 and older without incident. He also noted that the Navy had rescinded its age-60 limit for pilots and that the FAA, Boeing and several airlines have “developed elaborate testing procedures to detect health problems among pilots on an individualized basis.”
Under federal law, the court said, Boeing must prove that individual testing is not practical.
Thus far, Browning said, Boeing has failed to show that it is impractical “to determine by testing whether particular individuals aged 60 or over possessed traits precluding safe and efficient performance as pilots.”
Harold Carr, a spokesman for Boeing, said the company currently has between 65 and 70 test and training pilots, none of whom is 60 or older.
He said Boeing could not comment on Wednesday’s appeals court ruling until company attorneys have had an opportunity to read it.
