Pilot Fatigue:
George’s Point of View
We passengers have a problem. We don’t want our pilots falling asleep on the job. Behind that locked cockpit door, there’s a real danger that our pilots might well be dozing off. Like Howard Beale, in the movie NETWORK, we’ve gotta say, “I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value! … I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!!”
Apparently aviation authorities are taking notice of the sleepy pilot phenomenon.
In a September 2009 speech, the Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Raymond Benjamin raised the critical issue of pilot fatigue. The ICAO is coming out with new provisions governing flight times, duty times and rest periods for pilots which are applicable now, in November 2009. Fatigue risk management systems to augment new fatigue provisions are in development. I wonder if this includes things like alarms going off at random times during a flight, random check-ins or shrill-voiced stewards armed with tasers knocking on the cockpit door every fifteen minutes asking “Are you guys still awake?”
Ever since the Colgan Air crash near Buffalo that killed all 50 people onboard, the United States had been developing more stringent standards; and this has been stepped up even more since the recent occurrence of pilots who overshot their destination by 150 miles–although both pilots in this incident claimed to be distracted and not asleep. American regulations currently allow a maximum of 16 hours on duty–but that figure is currently being reassessed by the FAA.
Canadian pilots are looking toward the Canadian Transportation Safety Board to also up their standards, which they have not yet done, even though the Canadian Transportation Safety Board recently reported about a pilot: “Fatigue likely resulted in a degradation of his concentration” in reference to a 2005 incident where a pilot nodded off and allowed the plane to slow nearly to a stall. Although a dozen Canadian fatigue incidents have been connected to 23 deaths, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board claims that their current regulations are “adequate.” The European Union allows a maximum of 13 hours. Canadian regulations allow a crew to be on duty for 14 hours in 24), night work, irregular start times, routes that cross several time zones and multiple takeoffs and landings.
Some of the hardest work to deal with is called continuous or stand-up duty, which is when pilots handle a late evening flight, stay overnight and fly the turnaround leg–or the timing of this type of flight which forces irregular daylight hours to be the only time a pilot can sleep. Turnaround times don’t exactly respect human biorhythms.
Pilots might be dropping off to sleep while they’re flying, but the rest of us look at the statistics and fly white-knuckled with our hearts in our throats. With worries about everything from plane maintenance, to lax air traffic control, from crowded flight corridors to random part failure, the least we passengers can do is bring alarm clocks, our souped-up air horns, and plenty of high-test Starbucks emergency caffeine to keep our pilots awake, alert and on the mark.
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A simulation has revealed a pilot’s last words before flight AF447 crashed in 2009.
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Southwest plane nearly crossed runway in front of departing JetBlue plane Thursday in Virginia
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Russian military plane crashed in Stavropol region
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s air force claimed Friday it shot down a Russian strategic bomber, but Moscow officials said the plane crashed in a sparsely populated area due to a malfunction after a combat mission. Neither claim could be independently verified. Previous Ukrainian claims of shooting down Russian warplanes during their more than two-year […]
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The former president’s aircraft has been seen parked at LaGuardia Airport in New York as he takes part in his hush money trial in Manhattan.
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A military plane crashed in Russia’s Krasnogvardeysky district of the federal city of St. Petersburg. The pilots, according to sources, were ejected safely., Europe News – Times Now
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Two aircraft nearly crashed into each other earlier Thursday at Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport.
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Boeing, with its airplane-making reputation in tatters, has revealed plans to get into the flying car market in Asia.
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Lawmakers said it was a “horrifying example” of the effects of undermining slot and perimeter rules, calling the airport’s runway “overburdened.”
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But he notes a more defensive tone coming from the under-fire aviation manufacturer.
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GREEN LAKE COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A plane heading to EAA Airventure last July probably crashed because it ra…
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The Bonanza pilot didn’t follow the published traffic pattern, placing the aircraft close to rising terrain on downwind. He was too fast on final approach, and he went around on the first attempt. A police officer arrived to check on the airplane, as the pilot had reported to ATC that he was low on fuel. Still, he was safely on the ground.
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A NASA pilot is ready for the Pittsburgh Steelers to kick off the 2024 season.
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This deep-sea footage shows inside a sunken passenger plane, once thought to be the wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The wreckage of the MH370, which disappeared without trace while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014, has still never been found. The wreckage filmed by Deep Blue Dive Center, is actually the Lockheed Martin’s L1011 Tristar plane, which was deliberately sunk in 2019 in Jordan. It serves as a home for sea life, but a viral social media post wrongly speculated it was the MH370, which disappeared in 2014.
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The rarely seen footage comes as the company fiercely fights back following a whistleblower’s testimony on Capitol Hill, where a longtime engineer made some alarming allegations.
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Several months after her viral moment, Tiffany Gomas has garnered fresh attention with an eye-catching new post.
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My wife and I are scheduled for an Alaskan cruise in the fall. By all accounts, it’s something to which we should look forward. I’ve been told the same thing about other trips, including a Vegas…
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In the nearly two decades of A380 operations, the superjumbo has never suffered a fatal accident. Why is this and does that make it the world’s safest aircraft?
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