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White House pulls Delta pilot from international aviation position

After a major airline pilots' union objected, the White House withdrew on Thursday its nomination of ex-Delta?Airlines pilot Jeffrey Anderson as U.S. Ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Anderson was nominated by the administration of Donald Trump in July 2025, but he never received a confirmation hearing.

The White House has not disclosed the reasons for this withdrawal. Anderson didn't comment. The White House didn't immediately respond to an outside of regular business hours request for comment.

The Air Line Pilots Association (a union that represents over 79,000?pilots in 42 U.S. airlines and Canadian carriers) criticized Anderson’s nomination last year, saying he was unqualified for the position of ambassador. The group declined to comment on the matter Thursday.

The group pointed out that Anderson had supported raising the age of mandatory retirement for airline pilots. Some U.S. legislators urged the Trump Administration to lobby the Montreal-based United Nations last year. Civil Aviation Body for increasing retirement age to 67.

The United States Congress has rejected the push to raise the minimum age for airline pilots to 67.

Since July 2022 when C.B. After a brief stint in the position, "Sully Sullenberger", the airline captain that safely landed a Airbus A320 on the Hudson River of New York in 2009, after striking a flock geese.

The ICAO does not have any policing power, but it uses consensus to establish standards for its 193 members on such issues as runways and seat belts. The agency was formed after the United States invited over 50 allies in 1944 to agree on a common air-navigation system.

Ukraine urged ICAO this month to ask its member countries to ban operations within Russian airspace, after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that it had "become completely?unsafe".

Due to the 'war that began after Russia invaded Ukraine 2022, European and U.S. carriers don't fly over Russia. Airliners from China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, as well as other Gulf states, continue to fly over Russian airspace.

(source: Reuters)