Essay On Fatigue In Aviation

Fatigue in aviation has always been a significant issue when it comes to the safety of the crew and passengers. Fatigue in flight is not the only issue. There is also a serious safety issue in other areas of aviation such as maintenance, air traffic control (ATC), and even in areas such as baggage claim and gate security. One can find evidence of fatigue in just about every aspect of daily life. A majority of vehicle accidents can be contributed to fatigue in one way or another. One can even see it in the late night college student trying to finish a paper before its deadline. Although the last example doesn’t have any serious safety concerns it is still a very real instance of fatigue. The area of transportation has seen thousands of incidents where fatigue has

played a major role. It is the responsibility of everyone involved to take a stand against it and try to limit it any way possible. There are many different forms of fatigue. It is not just being sleepy or having your muscles ache. Some other forms are lack of motivation, feeling of weariness, overly stressed, and even being too full after a good Thanksgiving dinner (Types of Fatigue, Symptoms, And Treatments, 2014). Fatigue can come from anywhere and sometimes a person is not even aware that they are fatigued. It can affect people in different ways and some of it can be controlled where some of it may not be. It can come from taking medicine, obesity, heart disease, stress, alcohol abuse/use, grief, and even, as said before, overeating.
All of these examples are not always relevant when it comes to fatigue in aviation. Although some of them could be underlying factors, the main issue surrounding the aviation community is the amount of work day and stress put on pilots and crew members. This has been an issue that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the aviation community has been taking a close look at for years.
In the past and still relevant today the way to limit these hours was to have a predetermined amount of time that crew members were allowed to work and a set amount of time for them to rest. There have been many issues with this approach because everyone is different and react differently to fatigue. It also didn’t take into consideration that just because these crew members were not at work doesn’t mean they were getting the right kind of rest that was needed to prevent fatigue. They could have a crying baby at home, or could have just had too much caffeine and were not able to rest. There are a number of different holes in this approach and something else needs to change. For the most part as it stands today, it has to be left up to the pilot to determine whether they are able to take the flight or not.
Fatigue can have many symptoms that are not always noticed but are still very relevant.

Some of these include weakness, muscle aches, headaches, irritability, being overly emotional, slow reactions, diminished motor skills, reduced short term memory capacity, and tunneled concentration (Campbell, 2002). All of these symptoms can have serious effects on crew members and should not be taken lightly. On many occasions some of these cannot be noticed by the member, such as slow reactions and irritability, it is the duty of people around them to know the signs and address them if necessary. Of course just having these symptoms doesn’t always mean that someone is fatigued. Some or even most of them can be the cause of something else going on but all the same they can affect flight and the safety of passengers if they are serious enough. Fatigue is a very broad term and shows many different faces; however each is just as critical as the next.

Sleepiness is no doubt, the most prevalent form of fatigue in pilots and there are many ways to attack this symptom. Obviously, the first and foremost is to get a good night’s sleep. It is recommended that people get at least eight hours of uninterrupted but some people

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