CHICAGO (WLS) — Thousands of commercial airline pilots are facing mandatory retirement and there’s a stunning shortage of experienced people to replace them.

Pilot training standards were overhauled after a commuter jet slammed into a neighborhood near Buffalo, New York. Now, there’s talk of rolling back those regulations in order to put a new generation pilots in planes.

After the 2009 accident, federal investigators found that the pilot made critical errors and had a “history of training failures.” In response to the incident that killed everyone on board and one on the ground, the FAA dramatically increased the required flight training hours to become a commercial pilot.

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ABC7Chicago.com