2

Operators challenge EASA’s age-60 rule

By Thierry Dubois | October 12, 2016

Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 1 seconds.

Helicopter operators and some countries are challenging the relevance of the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA’s) so-called age-60 rule, which prevents pilots older than 59 from flying in single-pilot commercial air transport.

“FCL.065 [the official designation of the rule] should be abolished; there is no scientific reason for a general grounding of pilots older than 59,” Jaime Arqué, chairman of the European Helicopter Association (EHA), said during a seminar at the Helitech International 2016 show in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The rule is perceived as unfair towards pilots, as the retirement age in the European Union is 65, and the general health of those in the 60 to 65 age bracket has improved over the last 20 years.

EHA also asserts that emergency medical services (EMS) operators need such seasoned professionals. “Most of our operations are single-pilot,” Arqué said. Moreover, they may fly as a single pilot for aerial work.

“A far better approach would be more individualized medical and psychological testing of older pilots regarding medical risk factors, as well as cognitive and real-flight performance,” Arqué continued.

Lobbying action by the operators and pilot unions already have driven a wedge between EASA and its member states. Six countries (EASA has 31 member states) have applied for exemptions. They have pointed out that fewer pilots are being trained for single-pilot operations.

Are older pilots really more prone to sudden health problems? “Compared to the previous decade, the incidence of sudden cardiac arrest and stroke in the 55 to 65 group has decreased; however, it is still considerable,” Bas van der Weide, EASA’s coordinator for helicopter operations, warned.

Longer reaction times should be taken into account, as well as their mitigation by experience, said Ricardo Génova Galván, EASA flight standards director.

The six states presented mitigating measures. These ranged from enhanced medical examination to cognitive assessments and enhanced proficiency checks from the operator.

After an assessment by EASA, who saw no contradiction with the safety goal of the original rule, all six member states granted exemptions to their operators, Weide said.

Raising the age limit to 65 has been formally under discussion at EASA level. In April, it was discussed in a meeting of EASA’s expert medical group. The experts determined that “more discussions on the accepted risk level and mitigating measures are needed,” according to Weide.

During the seminar, a disagreement emerged over where data can be found and who should collect it. Génova suggested operators should gather their own data on flight hours, incident occurrences, lost licenses etc.

However, operators point out they may not have access to the medical data that can only be found at national authority level.

In March 2017, a two-day workshop is scheduled to gather 20 experts from the aeromedical and operational fields to discuss the issue.

Join the Conversation

3 Comments

  1. The EASA representative´s thoughts are based on personal opinion-and bad research.

    One cannot take an “average group” of people-pilots are not “average”, they are examined by a medical professional annually (every 6 months when older than 40), which is far better than the “average” citizen, who sees a doctor maybe every 2 or 3 years..

    Data is readily available, by the way-all EASA needs to do is to contact the Air Medical Examiner´s, and ask for a statistic on how many pilots have been identified with heart problems, or health problems/risks…..

    In addition to that, each country has specilised mililtary examination facilities, that already have all those statistics…

  2. Extending the age pilots can fly is simply a cheaper way of solving manpower shortages. Companies should invest in training more pilots. More pilots means lower salaries and a more healthy profitable industry.

  3. The problem now is about the clarity of this limitation, what will happen to me when I’m 60 years old? Will they fire me? Will I be degraded and forced to fly in the worst operations and the worst helicopters? Will I be forced to retirement?…

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HAI Heli-Expo 2024 Recap

Notice a spelling mistake or typo?

Click on the button below to send an email to our team and we will get to it as soon as possible.

Report an error or typo

Have a story idea you would like to suggest?

Click on the button below to send an email to our team and we will get to it as soon as possible.

Suggest a story