I've seen some terrible posts here. Just awful.
I read that a 51 year old DC10 captain had a heart attack on landing rollout, the copilot had to take the plane.
age 51.
people talking about weight factors have not fully researched other problems too.
how about use of drugs, I mean ILLEGAL drugs like pot or cocaine? shall we ban pilots who have ever used these? I'm for that. Let's also ban people from running for the US presidency who smoke, or have used drugs....fine with me.
as to age...;my copilot, age 28 fell asleep in cruise...during his probation year. He can be fired for that...age 28.
I truly believe there should be no upper age limit for pilots...just individual health.
And NO one can truly predict a heart attack...while there are indicators, and more coming each year, no one can predict it with 100 percent certainty.
I would think taking an aspirin daily should be considered by many...sitting from other things...I recall a very slender, wealthy medium age man just walking the streets of New York just keeled over(cardiac arrest)...that man directed and wrote many famous films including, "PLANES,Trains and automobiles"
healthy practices for sure...but the sadness of so many of these posts is disturbing, esp from flyboyike.
we should and must retain at LEAST 2 qualified pilots in the cockpit in case one gets sick. I even know of one case in which a pregnant captain ended up in great distress due to her pregnancy...she was flying on the day before her grounding date due to pregnancy was to happen