Exhausted pilots reveal risky nodding off
10:15 PM CST on Wednesday, November 8, 2006
By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV
As passengers rest in their airline seats, they may not be so at ease if they knew how likely it may be that their pilots are flying in an exhausted state of mind.
For the past two months, News 8 talked to regional airline pilots across the country. Many confessed that they regularly fly on so little rest, they literally fall asleep at the controls.
"You get in the cockpit and you fly for twenty minutes between A and B, and you don't know where the first 10 minutes ended up at," said one among several pilots who didn't want their names disclosed for job safety reasons. " All of a sudden, 15 or 20 minutes have gone by."
While the pilot may be nodding off at the controls, behind them is 25 tons of airliner and up to 90 passengers.
The pilots fly for regional airlines on trips as near as Abilene to as far as Toronto.
"Both the captain and I kind of nodded off all the way to cruise altitude, so we actually fell asleep until we got to the top of the climb," said a pilot. "When air traffic control said something on the radio we both woke up, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, we're already up here.' And I think we both were asleep for the whole time, about four or five minutes and that's a high workload time of flight."
Some pilots say they take an occasional hit of oxygen to revive themselves, but those effects are short-lived.
"You're fighting your body's desire, overwhelming desire in some cases, to be asleep," a pilot said.
The schedules they fly lead to their exhaustion. The Federal Aviation Administration requires that pilots get at least nine hours of rest every 24 hours. Under special so-called reduced rest schedules, pilots get only eight hours rest between flights.
The FAA requires that if pilots fly a reduced rest schedule one day, they must get at least 10 hours of rest the next. But rest is not the same as sleep and pilots say their sleep debt builds up.
"The fatigue you feel working as a commuter is like being in a haze or fog and not being able to make things out clearly," a pilot said. "Sometimes when I'm taxiing out, I'll look down at the chart and it takes me a long time to figure out which way am I going. [Am I going] north, am I going South?. It's dark out. I'm tired. I don't remember which way we're supposed to go."
On many days a pilot's company-allotted sleep time starts almost as soon as the plane hits the ground.
When an aircraft's parking brake is set and the cabin door opened, a signal is transmitted to the control tower. Fifteen minutes later, the rest clock starts. The pilot must be back at the airport 45 minutes early to prepare for the next flight.
"You might only get three hours of sleep," a pilot said.
FAA regulations allow pilots to fly 30 hours a week, which is 10 hours less than a standard work week.
But pilots say that for the sake of efficient scheduling and passenger convenience, those 30 hours are usually crammed into one part of any given week.
The real world's days become a pilot's nights, and no one day is the same as the next..
"That's when you get sick," said a pilot. "That's when you can't concentrate. You fall asleep while flying."
Pilots who have flown for big carriers like American Airlines and United Airlines and regional airlines like American Eagle and Comair, which fly smaller jets, say fatigue problems are worse in the regional areas because flights are generally shorter and more frequent. Pilots said those trips make it more difficult for a pilot to settle into a pattern.
Regional airlines say its up to pilots to complain about not getting enough rest.
"If at any time during that trip they don't feel rested, they can tell that carrier," said Deborah McElroy, Regional Airline Association.
But pilots say calling in fatigued is at least a black mark on their record, and at worst a cause for punishment.
"The record is permanent, because there is a list," a pilot said.
Another pilot agreed.
"I cannot just go to my company and say, 'I'm too tired and cannot fly,'" he said. "I'm afraid of the discipline I might get from my management team."
American Eagle, the nation's largest commuter airline, said its pilots can call in fatigue without fear of punishment. The airline says it happens 30 to 50 times a month. When a call is made, the pilot is called in to discuss the situation with management.
The FAA started rewriting it's sleep regulations 11 years ago, but has never finished.
"We'll get sued," said a spokeswoman for FAA when asked to be interviewed on camera about the subject.
In a written statement, the agency said, "We know from past experience that the airlines and pilots have not been able to agree on the FAA's past proposals to update our rules."
Some pilots have a dark view on how change will come.
"People need to die, unfortunately," a pilot said. "I hate to say it that way, but until there's a fiery crash and it gets a lot of attention in the media, people aren't going to realize our pilots aren't getting enough rest."
E-mail [email protected]
10:15 PM CST on Wednesday, November 8, 2006
By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV
As passengers rest in their airline seats, they may not be so at ease if they knew how likely it may be that their pilots are flying in an exhausted state of mind.
For the past two months, News 8 talked to regional airline pilots across the country. Many confessed that they regularly fly on so little rest, they literally fall asleep at the controls.
"You get in the cockpit and you fly for twenty minutes between A and B, and you don't know where the first 10 minutes ended up at," said one among several pilots who didn't want their names disclosed for job safety reasons. " All of a sudden, 15 or 20 minutes have gone by."
While the pilot may be nodding off at the controls, behind them is 25 tons of airliner and up to 90 passengers.
The pilots fly for regional airlines on trips as near as Abilene to as far as Toronto.
"Both the captain and I kind of nodded off all the way to cruise altitude, so we actually fell asleep until we got to the top of the climb," said a pilot. "When air traffic control said something on the radio we both woke up, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, we're already up here.' And I think we both were asleep for the whole time, about four or five minutes and that's a high workload time of flight."
Some pilots say they take an occasional hit of oxygen to revive themselves, but those effects are short-lived.
"You're fighting your body's desire, overwhelming desire in some cases, to be asleep," a pilot said.
The schedules they fly lead to their exhaustion. The Federal Aviation Administration requires that pilots get at least nine hours of rest every 24 hours. Under special so-called reduced rest schedules, pilots get only eight hours rest between flights.
The FAA requires that if pilots fly a reduced rest schedule one day, they must get at least 10 hours of rest the next. But rest is not the same as sleep and pilots say their sleep debt builds up.
"The fatigue you feel working as a commuter is like being in a haze or fog and not being able to make things out clearly," a pilot said. "Sometimes when I'm taxiing out, I'll look down at the chart and it takes me a long time to figure out which way am I going. [Am I going] north, am I going South?. It's dark out. I'm tired. I don't remember which way we're supposed to go."
On many days a pilot's company-allotted sleep time starts almost as soon as the plane hits the ground.
When an aircraft's parking brake is set and the cabin door opened, a signal is transmitted to the control tower. Fifteen minutes later, the rest clock starts. The pilot must be back at the airport 45 minutes early to prepare for the next flight.
"You might only get three hours of sleep," a pilot said.
FAA regulations allow pilots to fly 30 hours a week, which is 10 hours less than a standard work week.
But pilots say that for the sake of efficient scheduling and passenger convenience, those 30 hours are usually crammed into one part of any given week.
The real world's days become a pilot's nights, and no one day is the same as the next..
"That's when you get sick," said a pilot. "That's when you can't concentrate. You fall asleep while flying."
Pilots who have flown for big carriers like American Airlines and United Airlines and regional airlines like American Eagle and Comair, which fly smaller jets, say fatigue problems are worse in the regional areas because flights are generally shorter and more frequent. Pilots said those trips make it more difficult for a pilot to settle into a pattern.
Regional airlines say its up to pilots to complain about not getting enough rest.
"If at any time during that trip they don't feel rested, they can tell that carrier," said Deborah McElroy, Regional Airline Association.
But pilots say calling in fatigued is at least a black mark on their record, and at worst a cause for punishment.
"The record is permanent, because there is a list," a pilot said.
Another pilot agreed.
"I cannot just go to my company and say, 'I'm too tired and cannot fly,'" he said. "I'm afraid of the discipline I might get from my management team."
American Eagle, the nation's largest commuter airline, said its pilots can call in fatigue without fear of punishment. The airline says it happens 30 to 50 times a month. When a call is made, the pilot is called in to discuss the situation with management.
The FAA started rewriting it's sleep regulations 11 years ago, but has never finished.
"We'll get sued," said a spokeswoman for FAA when asked to be interviewed on camera about the subject.
In a written statement, the agency said, "We know from past experience that the airlines and pilots have not been able to agree on the FAA's past proposals to update our rules."
Some pilots have a dark view on how change will come.
"People need to die, unfortunately," a pilot said. "I hate to say it that way, but until there's a fiery crash and it gets a lot of attention in the media, people aren't going to realize our pilots aren't getting enough rest."
E-mail [email protected]
