Personal Injury Law

What Is Pilot Fatigue? New Rules Considered

By Jane Akre

Crew and Pilot Rest

How long should a pilot be allowed to stay in the air before he or she is fatigued?

That is a decades-old debate whether your pilot is in the cockpit of a jumbo jet flying across continents or on a short hop in a turboprop.

Now the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is planning to propose changes that would affect both ultra long-range routes as well as short regional jumps.

Many of the rules were crafted before ultra long-range routes took passengers to far-flung destinations such as Mumbai. An Airbus 380 and Boeing 777 can fly for as long as 20 hours without stopping, reports the New York Times.

The Wall Street Journal reports that flight regulations would govern flight hours and length of workdays for U.S. airline pilots.

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, the new rules would take into account a number of factors, including the latest on how sleep, or lack of, and changing time zones affect the human body.

Under the new regulations, pilot schedules, the number of take-offs and landings, as well as the time of day, the number of pilots and in-flight sleeping accomodations would all be taken into consideration.

However, adding more down time or rest time is not necessarily the answer, says Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, an expert in fatigue management and former medical school professor, who consults for American Airlines.

"It's the simple solution, but it is not the best solution," said Dr. Moore-Ede.

He says the body becomes accustomed to another time zone.

Airlines Sue

The proposals could end up costing the airline industry by forcing the hiring of more pilots, and that has the industry pushing back.

Last October, when the FAA required crews and pilots to remain at their overseas destination twice as long from 24 to 48 hours to ensure they got adequate rest, seven airlines asked a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington to set aside the new requirement because it posed an added burden and cost.

Delta argued it already assigns two captains and two first officers on the flights to India, Dubai, and Shanghai, and keeps long-range crews on the ground for 48 hours. The FAA rescinded its proposal.

American and Continental give their pilots 24 hours, reports the NYT.

As it now stands, pilots of small turboprops such as SkyWest Airlines and other regional carriers, end up flying about 20 percent more hours per month than is allowed by the rest of the industry.

The airlines including American, Continental, JetBlue, United, US Airways, and Atlas Air and Evergreen International, argue that not enough is known about pilot fatigue to order the additional rest, reports the Times.

Dr. Moore-Ede suggests data be collected from all airlines to see what is working for them. Continental Airlines Inc. is collecting fatigue data on the crews aboard its Boeing 777, which will be considered by the FAA in crafting the final rules which should be issues before the end of next year. #

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on September 16, 2009 (boomark / email).