Air Traffic Control Specialist Age and En Route Operational Errors

U.S. federal law requires that air traffic control specialists (ATCSs) hired after May 16, 1972 retire at age 56 on the premise that the risk of adverse events such as operational errors (OEs) increases with age (U.S. House of Representatives, 1971). OE count was modeled as a function of en route ATCS age and exposure to test that premise using Poisson regression. The odds of OE involvement for older (age 56 and older) and younger (age 55 or less) ATCSs were equal. These results suggest that the rationale for mandatory retirement of controllers might need to be reexamined through continued research.