Does a Pilot's Age Matter?

For business aircraft passengers, it can be concerning to see your pilot graying at more than just the temples. Not to worry. Like all pilots, so-called “senior” captains must be medically qualified, properly licensed, and current. What’s more, they bring decades of judgment, knowledge, and experience to the cockpit. Nevertheless, the U.S. forces its airlines to retire that experience at age 65. Business aviation has no such cutoff, which is one reason the person up front may have more hours than any airline pilot would be allowed to accumulate.

For more than 65 years, pilots for U.S. airlines have faced a mandatory retirement age. The 'Age 60' rule was established in 1959. In 2007, Congress raised the limit to 65 through the Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act. Today, a bill moving through Congress, the Let Experienced Pilots Fly Act, would raise the retirement age to 67.

Although the federal age limit doesn’t apply to general and business aviation pilots, many companies require their corporate flight department employees, including their pilots, to retire at the same age as all other employees. If that company-wide age limit is more than 65, then there is an internal policy that their pilots follow the FAA rule and leave the cockpit when they reach age 65.

However, there are business aviation providers and flight departments that do permit their pilots to fly as long as they continue to pass their FAA-required physical examinations, flight proficiency checks, and recurrent training. This policy has proved safe and beneficial to companies that want to keep their experienced pilots—often mentors to younger pilots—as long as possible.

Some operators pair a “younger” pilot with an “older” one on certain flights. Beyond the protection of simply having a two-pilot crew, does this kind of pairing add any safety? And do older pilots as a group pose any greater risk than younger ones?

A BJT search of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) final reports involving single-pilot turbine business aircraft accidents due to medically or drug/alcohol-induced pilot incapacitation between 1987 and 2023 found no correlation with pilot age. Of the 18 reports in the sample, pilot ages ranged from 30 to 79, with only five aged 68 or over. In the majority of reports (11), pilot age ranged from 30 to 57.

However, because we don’t know how many actively flying general aviation pilots are 65 or over, it cannot be determined what the ratio of incapacitation is compared to active pilots under 65 years old. There are no NTSB records of airline accidents due to one of the two pilots being medically incapacitated. In any case, on U.S. airlines, cockpit crew incapacitation (for any reason) could only occur to a pilot under 65.  

Interestingly, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand have no maximum age limit for domestic airline pilots, relying instead on ongoing medical and proficiency evaluations. Japan and Peru allow domestic airline pilots to fly up to ages 68 and 70, respectively. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard is that pilots must be under age 65 on international airline flights, but not on domestic flights.