Message sent to the following recipients:

This letter is from a Utah resident, who is NOT an airline pilot. He is interested in safety, as he is a frequent flyer. Those of you who are waiting to write may use some or all of this as a model.

Senator Hatch
Senator Bennett
Representative Matheson

Message text follows:

Lew Ross
2001 Nevada Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84108

June 6, 2001

[recipient address was inserted here]

Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

Dear Representative,

I am strongly against the Age 60 Rule that says that airline pilots must retire from the cockpit at Age 60. This rule was not instigated for safety reasons in the first place, it was a sham between the Chairman of American Airlines and the FAA Administrator, who incidentally, soon retired and went to work for American. This move was made to retire the higher income pilots and was a decision for the bottom line and obviously not safety.

A pilot's skills are honed over many years of experience and at age 60 is at the peak of his performance. He must pass a physical every 6 months, if not found healthy, he/she is grounded. If he/she is found to be healthy there is not reason to deny that person the employment and certainly not reasonable to deny the traveling public the benefit of their experience.

Another reason to extend the mandatory retirement age is the critical shortage of qualified pilots we are experiencing at this time and the worsening effect that we will face in the foreseeable future. The last thing that we need is for the increased traveling public to be subject to the influx of less experienced pilots.

Please endorse and vote to extend the flying age of airline pilots to age 65.

A response is requested as well as a white paper on the matter.

Thank you in advance for your timely response and for your support to extend the flying age of these airline pilots.

Sincerely,

Lewis A. Ross