60 year old ex-Astronaut forced to retire from airline

Former NASA astronaut Robert "Hoot" Gibson recently made his final flight as a Captain for Southwest Airlines. It wasn't his choice to end his 10-year airline career. "I'm not ready," he said. He was forced to retire because he was about to turn 60 years old. He calls that "blatant age discrimination."

From an article in the Houston Chronicle:

Gibson noted that he passes two physicals a year, flies a large assortment of other types of aircraft and runs four miles a day several times a week.

There's never been an age-related accident involving a commercial aircraft, he said.

"It ought to be an on-condition type of thing," he said.

Friends and family attended the party at Hobby feting Gibson, who was chosen as an astronaut in 1978.

"Nobody can fly a simulator or a shuttle like Hoot Gibson," said former Southwest pilot and friend Dick East.

Gibson retired from NASA in 1995, and was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2003. He is married to fellow shuttle astronaut Dr. Rhea Seddon.

Sources: Is 60 too old to be a pilot? - Houston Chronicle

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