Dana Broach
Author
Series
DOT/FAA/AM volume 05/22
Publisher
Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Aerospace Medicine
Pub. Date
2005.
Language
English
Description
Public Law 92-297, passed in 1971, requires that air traffic control specialists (ATCSs) hired after May 16, 1972 retire at age 56. The underlying rationale was that as controllers aged, the cumulative effects of stress, fatigue (from shift work), and age-related cognitive changes created a safety risk (U.S. House of Representatives, 1971). This hypothesis has been considered in two recent studies of en route operational errors (OEs). The Center for...