highlights
US gov't struggles to find answer to pilot fatigue
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-01 17:55
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 In this August 20, 2009 file photo, a French pilot sits in the cockpit during a flight over Budapest ahead of the final of the fourth round of the 2009 Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Budapest. [Agencies]
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WASHINGTON: Current US rules for how many hours pilots can be scheduled to work were written in an age of propellor-driven planes. Officials back then defined a reasonable work day for a pilot without a scientific understanding of fatigue and well before the modern airline industry.
Finding ways to prevent pilot fatigue has stymied federal regulators and the airline industry for decades. The National Transportation Safety Board has been recommending since 1990 that rules on how many hours pilots can be scheduled to work be updated to take into account early starting times and frequent takeoffs and landings.
NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said she doesn't expect the suggestions to be offered Tuesday to address all the issues that are part of the fatigue problem, but she hopes they will supply a foundation. "You have to build all the rest of the house around it," she said.
Some members of Congress, though, don't trust the FAA to finally come to grips with the problem. Besides forcing the agency's hand, a bill proposed by lawmakers would require airlines to use fatigue risk management systems -- complex scheduling programs that alert the company to potential fatigue problems.
After the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the bill earlier this month, Chairman James Oberstar ran through a list of the airline crashes in recent decades.
"The common thread running through all of it is fatigue," said Oberstar. "We have many experiences of the flight crew, the cabin crew, who in cases of emergency were just so numb they couldn't respond instantly to a tragedy at hand."
Linda Zimmerman, a retired Ohio teacher whose sister died in a 2004 regional airline crash in Kirksville, Missouri, said the government's slow response saddens her.
"So many people have died and they haven't done anything about it," Zimmerman said.
Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 was preparing to land on October 19, 2004, when the twin-engine turboprop slammed into trees. The pilots and 11 passengers were killed. Two injured passengers survived by jumping from the plane moments before it was engulfed in flames.
The NTSB said the pilots failed to notice that their plane had descended too quickly because they failed to follow procedures and engaged in unprofessional cockpit banter.
But the board also said the captain and first officer probably were exhausted, they were completing their sixth flight of the day, had been on duty more than 14 hours and had flown three trips the day before.
