Pilot Fatigue Essay

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On May 18 2016, FlyDubai flight FZ981 was attempting a second landing at Rostov-on-Don in Russia when it crashed near the runway. The FlyDubai captain crashed his plane because he was experiencing extreme exhaustion and had a disagreement with the co-pilot in the cockpit before the crash. The staff members reported that Captain Cypriot Aristos Sokratous had already given his three-month notice and was his last flight. He cited fatigue and exhaustion as his reasons for leaving (BBC News). Pilot fatigue has been a significant problem in modern aviation, widely because of the unexpected work hours, insufficient sleep, and long working hours that are common in both military and civilian flight operations. Its negative impact on flight crew performance …show more content…

The pilots’ performance during his job is determined on how much the pilot has rested the night before his flight. To comprehend the problem of inadequate sleep, people must know what is sleep is. Sleep consists of four stages, the first one is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep where the mind is active and some minor muscles twitch. The next three stages of sleep are where the body and mind slows down. After 45 to 75 minutes of rest, people return to REM. People go through these stages several times throughout the night and any interruption with the cycle will render the whole cycle ineffective. According to Mark Brandon of Airline Safety, sleep deprivation is an interference of a person’s internal/dark cycle, called circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are the biological clock existing in a human brain since prehistoric times, which tells people that they should work during that day and sleep during the night (Brandon). Circadian changes makes a person try to sleep when their mind is alert and wide awake, and the circadian changes forces the person to stay awake when the persons’ mind is begging to go to bed. Long schedules and changes in circadian rhythms are among the most common causes of fatigue faced by pilots, mainly because there is little that can be done to change them. All humans subject to these factors and the best way to resolve it is to limit its effects by controlling its

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