The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) has concluded that there is too little information to determine if the federal move to increase the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots has decreased aviation safety.

The law enacted in December 2007 that extended the age limit from 60 to 65 (with strings attached) required that the new federal policy be reviewed in two years.

The GAO says its analysis of how the law is working is inconclusive because it does not know how many pilots over the age of 60 are still flying for the airlines and because of the brief time the law has been in effect.

“Our review of the Federal Aviation Administration’s accident and incident data and NTSB’s accident data from December 2007, when the act was enacted, through September 2009 showed that no accidents or incidents resulted from the health conditions of pilots 60 years or older.

“However, for a more definitive assessment, a longer period of time would be required to collect data for similar groups—both pilots 60 years or older and younger pilots—to determine if the act’s change in the age standard for commercial pilots has any
effect on aviation safety. Such a study is not yet feasible because the act is too recent for flight records to be available for a sufficient number of pilots 60 years or older,” the GAO report stated.

But the GAO auditors did say “early indications are that increasing the age limit for commercial airline pilots has had no effect on aviation safety.” The FAA’s and National Transportation Safety Board’s accident and incident data showed no adverse safety effects attributable to the increase in the age limit for pilots.

Both agencies reviewed their respective databases for the period from December 2007 through September 2009 and found that no accidents or incidents during that period resulted from the health conditions of pilots 60 years or older. The FAA’s Accident and Incident Data System (AIDS) captured seven incidents involving captains aged 60 and 61, but no health or cognitive issues of any kind were reported for these incidents.

The debate was rekindled by an incident this past June when Captain Craig Lenell, 60, died at the controls of a Boeing 777 during a Continental flight from Brussels, Belgium to Newark, NJ.

The GAO report concluded that backups are sufficient to provide for safety in the case of a pilot’s death, noting there had been five pilots who died on commercial flights since the FAA started keeping records, all ages 48 to 57. Lenell was the sixth pilot to die. None of the deaths resulted in accidents. The GAO report noted that Lenell had heart disease but that it would not have been picked up by routine medical screening for pilots.

The GAO said the issue needs further study. “It would be prudent and informative to the F.A.A. and the pilots’ union and the flying public to be able to, at an appropriate time, do an analysis that could be more definitive.”

In the Continental incident, the first officer and a relief pilot safely completed Continental Airlines Flight 61 June 18 at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International after Lenell died mid-flight.

The 32-year Continental veteran based in Newark died of a heart attack. The flight, carried 247 passengers, 12 flight attendants and the three aviators. Passengers didn't know anything was wrong until they landed and were met by fire trucks, emergency vehicles and clamoring reporters. One passenger only learned about what happened when her husband called her cell phone after landing to tell her the unfortunate news.

The sad event reinforces the safety margins imposed by the FAA to cover such an unlikely event.

To ensure flight safety in the event a pilot becomes incapacitated, FAA rules require any flight longer than eight hours to carry a relief pilot. Flights exceeding 12 hours are required to carry two relief pilots.

Lenell would not have been at the controls of the B-777 had it not been for federal legislation passed in late 2007 that raised the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots to 65, allowing senior pilots to fly an additional five years.

The Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act lets pilots fly until they reach 65, provided they pass medical tests taken twice a year. It also mandates that air carriers perform additional proficiency checks on pilots over 60, such as line checks every six months. The pilots must also continue to take training and qualification programs.

Although grounded commercial transport pilots have fought over the past decade to regain access to the flight deck, it was not until after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) allowed pilots to fly until they reach 65 that momentum built quickly to change the rule in the United States. Following ICAO’s lead, international flights require at least one pilot under age 60.

Airlines have lost pilots in flight before, reports Agence France Presse.

In January 2007, a Continental flight from Texas to Mexico made an emergency landing after the pilot fell ill. The co-pilot safely landed the plane carrying 210 passengers and the pilot died on the ground.

In May 2000, Taiwanese carrier China Airlines was forced to turn back shortly after takeoff when the pilot suffered a heart attack. The co-pilot returned the plane to the airport and the pilot died soon after arriving at a hospital.

In March 1997, a Gulf Air Airbus A-320 skidded at Abu Dhabi airport after a pilot had a heart attack right at takeoff.

A 2004 FAA study found nearly 50 incidents of pilot impairments or incapacitations in a study of U.S. airline pilots from 1993 to 1998. Flight safety was an issue in seven of those flights and two results in nonfatal accidents.