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in our view, transferred to FAA the burden of proving by valid evidence that an airline pilot was unfit to continue by reason of his age; we cited facts showing that we share the airspace daily with other users who, although they may lack much of the sophisticated safety backup available to us, may nevertheless fly to any age without compulsory retirement.

The Administrator's response to our Petition: a flat denial. We asked for a hearing by the FAA; in the alternative we asked for an arbitration, non-binding on the FAA, but with FAA participation; as a third alternative, we proposed to sponsor and pay for an industry-wide hearing, non-binding on FAA, as the means to collect evidence to determine on a fair record whether chronological age is a relevant factor for airline pilots. The FAA's answer to all of these proposals: "The request for any kind of hearing is hereby denied."

We asked for a conference with FAA to discuss the matter informally; FAA denied that request. We proposed to FAA that we meet and jointly establish a task force with representatives of Pilots, of FAA and of the carriers, to reexamine this subject in its entirety and to try to come up with mutually acceptable recommendations for solving the problem. To this proposal, which we thought was quite constructive, we have not even been able to get an answer from FAA, though we were promised a response back in August, 4 months ago.

The Rule that cuts off your career is a rule on which no hearing has ever been held, and no evidence pro or con ever produced. In the air transportation industry, where we have the right to expect that public officials should in all candor welcome the opportunity to review and update its rules and regulations with us, and should gladly receive whatever evidence may be available, the FAA has kept its eyes and its mind tightly shut and so far as we can determine, this is what we can expect in the future unless we do something about it.