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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 0974.PDF
& ADVERTISER CONTACTS - P49 WWW.FLI6HTINTERNATI0NAL.COM Webmaster Sheena Buchanan •44 (20) 8652 4432 wetmasterSifligUlntem3tional.com COMMENT EDITORIAL +44 (20) 8652 3842 Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 SAS, UK Fax *44 (20) 8652 3840 email fliQht.intemational@rbi.co.uk Editor Murdo Morrison +44 (20) 8652 4395 murdo.morrison@rbi.co.uk Editorial Assistant Andrew Costerton +44 (20) 8652 3835 andrew.costerton@rbi.coMk News Editor Andrew Doyle •44 (20) 8652 3096 andrew.doyle@rbi.co.uk Commercial Aviation Editor Max Kingsley-Jones •44 (20) 8652 3825 max.kmgsley.jones@rbi.co.uk Defence Editor Craig Hoyle +44 (20) 8652 3834 craig.tioyie@rbi.co.uk Operations/Safety Editor David Learmount +44 (20) 8652 3845 david.learmount@rbi.co.uk Business Reporter +44 (20) 8652 3990 Business £ General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield +44 (20) 8652 3885 kate.sarsfield@rbi.co.uk Senior Reporter Justin Wastnage +44 (20) 8652 2ibijustin.wastnage@rbi.co.uk Technical Reporter Rob Coppinger +44 (20) 8652 3843 rob.coppinger@rbi.co.uk Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Furniss +44 (1237) 477883 tim@spaceport.co.uk Senior Technical Artist Giuseppe Picarella +44 (20) 8652 S05Ajoe.picarella@rbi.co.uk Editorial Artist Tim Brown +44 (20) 8652 8043 tim.brown@rbi.co.uk EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST European Editor Christina Mackenzie +33 (1) 64 23 68 89 cbristina.mackenzie@rbi.co.uk Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi +972 (3) 9413132 Middle East Correspondent Gerald Butt AMERICAS Washington DC Office Fax +1 (703) 836 8344 Americas Editor Graham Warwick +1 (703) 836 3448 graham.warwick@rbi.co.uk East Coast Editor Stephen Trimble +1 (703) 836 3084 stephen.trimble@rbi.co.uk West Coast Editor Guy Norris +1 (949) 252 8971 Fax +1 (949) 252 8972 guy.norris@rbi.co.uk Brazil Correspondent Jackson Flores Jr +55 212439-6062 Fax +55 212349-6090 fubar@uol.com.br ASIA/PACIFIC Singapore Office Fax +65 6789 7575 Regional Managing Editor Nicholas lonides +65 6780 4311 nicholas.ionides@rbi.co.uk Deputy Asia Editor Brendan Sobie +65 6780 4309 brendan.sobie@rbi.co.uk Regional Reporter Leithen Francis +65 6780 4314 leithen.francis@rbi.co.uk Australia Civil Aviation Correspondent Emma Kelly +61 (8) 9454 4987 emmajkelly@bigpond.com Associate Editor (Defence) Peter La Franchi •61419 246 620 Fax +61 (2) 62312795 nulka@ozemail.com.au EDITORIAL PRODUCTION Group Production Editor Graeme Osborn +44 (20) 8652 3828 Group Art Editor James Mason +44 (20) 8652 4994 Chief Sub-Editor Chris Thornton +44 (20) 8652 4997 Deputy Production Editor Jackie Thompson +44 (20) 8652 3850 Sub Editor Simon Rees +44 (20) 8652 3848 Photographer Mark Wagner +44 (20) 8944 5225 SUBSCRIPTIONS +44 (1444) 445454 rbi.subscriptions@rbi.co.uk THE FLIGHT COLLECTION kim.hearn@rbi.co.uk © and Database Rights 2004 Reed Business Information Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers / ivy; f Air Transport Intelligence (ATI), Flight International's sister online service at www.rati.com, contains the full text of Flight Internationaland Airline Business since 1996. Full text of the magazines can also be found online with Lexis-Nexis, Dialogue, FT Profile, IAC and Reuters. Editor Kieran Daly +44 (20) 8652 3837 Reed Business Information Tired of fatigue Rules alone will never prevent pilot weariness. That can only be done by a combination of sound guidelines and systems to prevent their abuse The day will never come when airlines and flightcrew agree on flightcrew duty time (FCDT) limitation regulations, so it has been no surprise that European pilots have vociferously opposed the approval of a standardised European Union law on the subject that attempts to take into account arguments by both parties. But it is not necessary for them to agree for the rules to do the job they were intended to do - to reduce to an acceptably low level the risk of an accident in which pilot fatigue is a factor For this to be true, however, it is absolutely essential for the airlines to operate rosters that respect the spirit of the FCDT laws, not merely the letter of the law. Nearly 20 years ago, the UK Civil Aviation Authority, which operates one of the world's most mature FCDT regulatory systems, made precisely that point when intro ducing some revisions to its existing guidelines. The CAA said that creating It is essential that airlines operate rosters that respect the spirit of the laws absolutely watertight, abuse-proof rules - but flexible enough to allow commercial airlines to operate viably - is impossible because there are so many variables. The rules attempt to set a safe maximum duty time considering the number of sectors flown; the time of day or night the duty starts; the number of time zones to be crossed; the time of day or night the crew has to try to get some sleep, including the pilot's "body clock" relative to the local time; the minimum time between going off duty and reporting for duty the next duty, tak ing into account getting to and from a place of rest, eating, sleeping, eating again and return ing to work; the maximum number of duty hours for the day/week/month and year; and whether these are worked out on a calendar basis or a 24h rolling basis. In all aviation regulations the objective is to manage risk, because eliminating it entirely is not possible. The FCDT rules are not intended to protect pilots from being tired after an honest day's work, but to prevent a build-up of debilitat ing fatigue, which renders pilots more liable to make errors in judgement and decision-making, and robs them of physical self-awareness. Rules that enable an airline to operate viably, not only in terms of getting a reasonable amount of productive time per month out of the pilots, but also of providing crews - when they need it - with the option of a duty time exten sion to complete the day's task after unforeseen technical or operational delay - will always be liable to abuse by unscrupulous airlines. Cramming a week's maximum duty time into three days can be done if airlines fly to legal daily maxima three days in a row, and in one of them the duty extension option is used without operational cause. There are systems in place for countering abuse, however. National aviation authorities are there to prevent it, and pilot unions can also be a vital safeguard. In most countries where crews normally operate safe hours, the limits have traditionally been set not by law, but by agreement between the pilot unions and their employers. But by the nature of things, FCDT abuse has to start before it can be detected or reported, so there is a risk. There needs to be a confidential reporting system to enable whistleblowers to alert a lax national authority to regulatory abuse before it becomes systemic. Some pilots are unlucky enough to operate in a country where the avia tion establishment - meaning the authority and the airline - are effectively a unit, and fatigue is not recognised as a danger. In some of these countries whistleblowing can be career suicide. European pilots, demonstrating last week against what they see as a set of new, politi cally determined regulations, say they want rules based on science. The trouble is that, in the USA, where a great deal of research has been done on fatigue, the conclusions remain as debatable as the definitions of the words "tired" or "fatigued", so US pilots remain unhappy with their rules and it looks unlikely they will get change in the short term. In Australia, a long-term, real-time study is moni toring the effects of fatigue on line pilots by measuring their performance (Flight International, 18-24 March 2003), but even when that study yields up its derived data, the results will remain a tool for creating a basi cally sound set of rules and recognising abuse when it occurs, not for creating regulations which are simultaneously abuse-proof and yet flexible enough to enable commercial opera tors to continue in business. Keeping dangerous pilot fatigue at bay is the combined job of the national authorities, air lines, pilot unions and, finally, individual pilots in command. Rules alone can never work. SEE AIR TRANSPORT P8 www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 15-21JUNE 2004 3
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