ABC Investigates lack of pilot sleep

[Skywest Pylot]

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]What do you think Yip, should we go ahead and drop the 8hr and .04 rules as well?[/FONT]
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[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]http://cf.alpa.org/internet/projects/ftdt/backgr/fatigue_performance_impairment_1997.html

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Fatigue, Alcohol and Performance Impairment
Nature, Volume 388, July-August 1997​

Reduced opportunity for sleep and reduced sleep quality are frequently related to accidents involving shift-workers1-3. Poor-quality sleep and inadequate recovery leads to increased fatigue, decreased alertness and impaired performance in a variety of cognitive psychomotor tests4. However, the risks associated with fatigue are not well quantified. Here we equate the performance impairment caused by fatigue with that due to alcohol intoxication, and show that moderate levels of fatigue produce higher levels of impairment than the proscribed level of alcohol intoxication.
Forty subjects participated in two counterbalanced experiments. In one they were kept awake for 28 hours (from 8:00 until 12:00 the following day), and in the other they were asked to consume 10-15g alcohol at 30-min intervals from 8:00 until their mean blood alcohol concentration reached 0.10%. We measured cognitive psychomotor performance at half-hourly intervals using a computer-administered test of hand-eye coordination (an unpredictable tracking task). Results are expressed as a percentage of performance at the start of the session.
Performance decreased significantly in both conditions. Between the tenth and twenty-sixth hours of wakefulness, mean relative performance on the tracking task decreased by 0.74% per hour. Regression analysis in the sustained wakefulness condition revealed a linear correlation between mean relative performance and hours of wakefulness that accounted for roughly 90% of the variance (Fig. 1a).
Regression analysis in the alcohol condition indicated a significant linear correlation between subject’s mean blood alcohol concentration and mean relative performance that accounted for roughly 70% of the variance (Fig. 1b). For each 0.01% increase in blood alcohol, performance decreased by 1.16%. Thus, at a mean blood alcohol concentration of 0.10%, mean relative performance on the tracking task decreased, on average by 11.6%.
Equating the two rates at which performance declined (percentage decline per hour of wakefulness and percentage decline with change in blood alcohol concentration), we calculated that the performance decrement for each hour of wakefulness between 10 and 26 hours was equivalent to the performance decrement observed with a 0.004% rise in blood alcohol concentration. Therefore, after 17 hours of sustained wakefulness (3:00) cognitive psychomotor performance decreased to a level equivalent to the performance impairment observed at a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%. This is the proscribed level of alcohol intoxication in many western industrialized countries. After 24 hours of sustained wakefulness (8:00) cognitive psychomotor performance decreased to a level equivalent to the performance deficit observed at a blood alcohol concentration of roughly 0.10%.
Plotting mean relative performance and blood alcohol concentration ‘equivalent’ against hours of wakefulness (Fig. 2), it is clear that the effects of moderate sleep loss on performance are similar to moderate alcohol intoxication. As about 50% of shift-workers do not sleep on the day before the first night-shift5, and levels of fatigue on subsequent night-shifts can be even higher6, our data indicate that the performance impairment associated with shift-work could be even greater than reported here.
Our results underscore the fact that relatively moderate levels of fatigue impair performance to an extent equivalent to or greater than is currently acceptable for alcohol intoxication. By expressing fatigue-related impairment as a ‘blood-alcohol equivalent’, we can provide policy-makers and the community with an easily grasped index of the relative impairment associated with fatigue.
[Note: Retyped. Endnotes and Figures 1, 1a and 2 referenced in the article are illegible and have been omitted.]
[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Drew Dawson
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The Centre for Sleep Research
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Woodville, 5011 South Australia
e-mail: [email protected][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Kathryn Reid
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Woodville, 5011 South Australia[/FONT]

 

[ThisistheDream]

CDO are fine the pilots just has to get there rest. Most CDO give you 12 plus hours of rest between report times/ There are many safety related jobs that require 3rd shift hours..At Comair the company would pay for the hotel for commuters that would do CDO back to back..

 

[pilotyip]

Airline Economics?

So you think we should just give seats away to fill them and have thousands of packed planes in the sky not making money with fatigued pilots at the controls? Is that better?

How much have you studied yield management? How much experience do you have in airline economics? Do some research, find out how airlines make money to stay in business and allow you to progress in your career, it is really interesting stuff. This avoids operating in a vacuum. As stated before if you have all the answers it is tour duty to come over to the management side and make things better.

 

[SLUF4]

Answer my question. Oh yeah, good typical management response.

 

[JoeMerchant]

Folks,

Tired is tired and there are many ways to get there; CDO, 4 day, three day, commuting, whatever.

Let's just remember, none of the issues discussed on this board have anything to do with Colgan's accident. The fatigue, rest, and pay-related-commuting issues were all directly related to personal choices made by the pilots.

Even if the FEDS limited our duty day to 8 hours, those pilots would be in the exact same position, fatigue wise.

Personal responsibility has been long missed from our culture. Professional responsibility seems to be an endangered species.

Well said!

Crew experience is a larger safety issue....

 

[pilotyip]

can not be answered

Answer my question. Oh yeah, good typical management response.

Your question was like do you still beat your wife? If I answer YES I am anti-safety. If I answer NO I am anti-airline staying in business to provide you with a job. It the end is not management driving this; it is management’s response to an informed consumer demand.

 

[SLUF4]

It's easy to answer. Obviously you feel that airlines make money at 100% load factor (even though they're still losing millions and the planes are packed) and raising prices would bump so much load they would not make any money. You also believe that the current rest regulations are appropriate and changing them would cost jobs.

 

[ualdriver]

Your question was like do you still beat your wife? If I answer YES I am anti-safety. If I answer NO I am anti-airline staying in business to provide you with a job. It the end is not management driving this; it is management’s response to an informed consumer demand.

Pilotyip-

You're coming across like JoeMerchant is. Look at some of JoeMerchant's arguments, although I hate to even bring them up again. He's a senior captain at a union airline making six figures and certainly flying cherry schedules. He's effectively insulated from the poorly written FARs through his union and seniority. He's more concerned about losing days off than he is how the guys at the bottom of his seniority list and the pilots at other airlines are being treated and abused by the industry through poorly written FARs concerning rest.

Then you come along and tell us all how rewriting the regulations are going to cost jobs. You're seem more concerned about airline economics and getting your wife cheap tickets to ABQ than you are about fixing the regs. You and I both know that the minimum rest and duty requirements provided by the FARs ARE INADEQUATE. In the past, our unions largely protected us from the inadequacies of the FARs. Now that market forces have driven us down to LCC/FAR minimums, something has to give. To argue that, well, making the FARs more realistic are going to cost jobs is at best a tertiary concern. I'm working at a financially shaky airline and I'm perfectly happy to take the "risk" that a change in regulations, for the better, will harm my airline.

My statement to both of you is BRING ON THE CHANGE, despite the prospects (overblown IMO) of "unintneded consequences."

 

[pilotyip]

I agree, bring it on

Pilotyip-

My statement to both of you is BRING ON THE CHANGE, despite the prospects (overblown IMO) of "unintneded consequences."

I agree bring it on, But I ask what is the limit of ultimate crew rest? Everyone only works when they feel rested; they can call fatigue at any stop during a trip, and refuse any assignment because they are not rested? How about no flying between 2200 and 0800, make it against the law? How about those 16 hour int'l flights? Will there now be stops and crew changes at BIRK? Followed by a RO2N to be fully rested for that last leg into Europe. I have no dog in this flight, but "unintended consequences" may have devastating effects on the industry.

 

[ualdriver]

I agree bring it on, But I ask what is the limit of ultimate crew rest? Everyone only works when they feel rested; they can call fatigue at any stop during a trip, and refuse any assignment because they are not rested? How about no flying between 2200 and 0800, make it against the law? How about those 16 hour int'l flights? Will there now be stops and crew changes at BIRK? Followed by a RO2N to be fully rested for that last leg into Europe. I have no dog in this flight, but "unintended consequences" may have devastating effects on the industry.

I doubt the rest rules are going to be so onerous that any flying after 10pm is going to be outlawed. And yeah, if a guy is too tired to fly for any reason at any time, he shouldn't be flying. However, you and I were both freight guys flying back of the clock during portions of our careers, and we adjusted our lives accordingly. Howver I can definitely say without hesitation that I was abused and the FARs did nothing to protect me. I don't think the FAA, the unions, or anyone else is going to say that flying is unsafe.

Concerning international flights, although I only have a few hundred hours of experience and less than a year in that area, we have a 3rd or 4th pilot with designated pilot rest areas during breaks (including bunks, sound suppressing and darkening curtains, and/or lay flat seats) to help mitigate the effects of fatigue. I think domestic and international flying need to be handled differently.

So what's the limit of ultimate crew rest? I don't know, but we need something better than we have now. Whatever it ends up being, it's going to be a fuzzy, squiggly line no matter what the FAA (with ALPA input) decides to do because I think when we're talking about what is fatiguing and what isn't, the interpretation is extremely subjective as you point out.