Pilot fatigue gets fast track attention from FAA

In a very aggressive move not typical of the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency has given U.S. airlines, pilot unions and federal official until September 1, 2009 to address the urgent subject of pilot fatigue and draft new rules about how to deal with this problem.

Pilot fatigue has been an issue for decades, but little has been done to reduce the incidence of this safety concern. In fact, it is doubtful that the FAA would be directly addressing this ongoing issue as aggressively as they are were it not for the accident in February in upstate New York that killed 50 people.
It has been determined that both pilots on the Continental Express aircraft that crashed outside of Buffalo had less than a full night of sleep prior to beginning their duty hours.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s “most wanted” list includes combating fatigue as a safety improvement that urgently needs attention.

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt has requested airlines and pilot unions to begin discussions with federal officials by July 15 in order to successfully meet the September 1 deadline.
In the 1990s an attempt to reach a compromise between the airlines and pilot unions was unsuccessful, leaving decades old rules in place that does little to promote safety.

Current rules allow pilots to be on duty for up 16 hours while flying up to eight hours per day.
The restrictions on hours say nothing about flying through the middle of the night or how many takeoffs and landing are permitted during a certain time period.
The consensus in the industry is that long distance flying with few takeoffs and landings is less tiring than multiple ones.

There is also little agreement in today’s rules as to how many days in a row pilots can work, but rather deals only with how many hours in a month are permissible.

Often in the name of keeping expenses as low as possible, airlines have rejected past attempts to further restrict the hours that a pilot can fly or be on duty.
Pilots on the other hand have fought airline attempts to extend their hours beyond the current restrictions. Both the airline industry and the Air Line Pilots Association have said that they support the FAA’s current effort and are hopeful that an agreement can be reach this time around.

Source: examiner.com.