Pilot Fatigue Research Paper

Huey O’Neil

Mrs. Z

8 April 2014

English I Honors

Pilot Fatigue: Issues of Flying Tired

On February 12th of 2009, Colgan Airlines flight 3407 operated for Continental Airlines crashed in Buffalo, New York in a rural neighborhood. This incident caused forty-five lives on the aircraft and one life on the ground to be lost due to pilot fatigue. The aircraft stalled on approach due to icing. Capt. Marvin Renslow and F.O. Rebecca Shaw, the pilots operating the flight, had slept in the crew room at the airport affecting their quality and length of sleep the previous night. This caused the pilots’ reaction to icing, a routinely encountered substance while flying, to be below standards and improper. According to the NTSB report, the probable cause of the incident was deemed pilot error. In the report, fatigue was noted as a large contributing factor to the incorrect response to the stall. This incident has sparked debate within the airline industry as to how much sleep pilots need. Airline pilot unions and pilots are pressing for less flying and more rest. However, unions and pilots alike have been voicing their opinions on pilot fatigue for decades on the issue, with no adequate response from Congress or the Federal Aviation Administration. With over twenty-eight thousand commercial flights per day in the United States carrying over one and a half million people, serious changes need to be mandated. Some of these changes have already come, but is that enough? Even though reducing the maximum number of hours pilots are allowed to be on duty would require more pilots, and cost more, pilots have less situational awareness when tired, endangering the lives aboard their aircraft, there is still no reliable method of testing fatigue, and .

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...ne of training to a qualified airline pilot is $70,000. This would take a colossal sum of money directly out of the airline’s profits. Nevertheless, one’s safety surpasses the economical expenses. Travelers should not compromise the safety and integrity of flight for lower fares. If the airlines and flight departments of America had better standards for flight crew scheduling, they could have saved over

All in all, safety is the number one priority.

It is estimated that pilot fatigue contributes to 15-20% of all fatal air accidents related to human error. It is precisely at the moment when most people would feel ‘dead tired’ at the end of a long working day, that pilots must be fully alert to make critical decisions, concentrate and ensure a safe landing. In any case, getting to one’s destination in one piece is much more important than the price of one’s ticket