drron
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2002
- Posts
- 36,557
Air New Zealand's eldery pilots 'refusing to quit'
The CASA stress test requirements were set partly with that in mind-ie you have to complete 9 minutes on the Bruce protocol.That gets harder as you age.Reading the NZ CAA medical reqirements there is no insistence on stress testing no matter what age unless considered high cardiovascular risk.Unfortunately even people with low cardiovascular risk do have heart attacks.An Air New Zealand pilot who did not wish to be named said the company had about 850 pilots, with more than 100 of these aged over 60 and about three over 70.
"For the last 10 years no-one has been retiring. Everyone's been stuck where they are. Air NZ has not hired a pilot in over three years and any hiring in the last five to eight years was primarily due to new aircraft expansion."