Had nothing to do with the FAA....per se,
Geoff.
Had everything to do with CR Smith, then
founder and CEO of American Airlines
circa '57 when the "age 60 rule" was invoked by the then outgoing FAA
Administrator, Elmo Quasada. who abused his "emergency authority" to
unilaterally create a Federal Air Reg.
that reduced the mandatory retirement
age from 65 to 60, at the request of
CR.
You see, at the time American was
transitioning to jets. The recent Air Force
and Navy pilots hired had no problem
flying jets 'cause that's what they had
been trained to fly in the service. But
the older pilots who'd been flying slower,
draggier piston powered aircraft and
who's "muscle memory" was tuned to
non-hydraulic boosted controls took a
lot longer to make the "transition". This
cost CR Smith money in training costs.
Elmo Qusada was an ex-WW2 buddy
of CR. So just before his tenure as
FAA Administrator expired, he did CR
a "favor".
CR returned the favor. Two weeks later
Qusada was sitting on the board of
AMR Corp., the owner of American
Airlines at a very nice annual "retainer",
a position he held for God knows how
many years.
Safety was never a consideration. The
Federal Government is being sued in
Federal Court by a professoinal pilot
group to get the BS "age 60 rule" removed
from the books. It'll take years, believe me! Most especially in view of
the
financial condition of most of the old
majors.
Cap'n. Bob
'60 :{)
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