The Effects of Commuting on Pilot Fatigue (2011) / Chapter Skim
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Fatigue is a widely acknowledged potential safety risk factor that can contribute to less effective pilot performance. Although the number and timing of hours worked and hours slept can contribute to fatigue, the federal regulations that govern pilot flight and duty time have not been revised in decades.
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Pilot commuting differs from the commuting of other workers in terms of frequency and variability, distance, transport modes, and time of day. Most pilots work for four main types of airlines: mainline airlines that predominately operate scheduled service in jet aircraft with more than 90 seats and often provide intercontinental service; regional airlines that predominately operate scheduled service in aircraft, both jet and turboprop, with 90 or fewer seats; cargo airlines that deliver goods all over the world; and charter airlines that provide nonscheduled passenger flights.
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Similarly, an analysis of changes in aircraft departures from the principal cities served by each of 30 mainline, regional, and cargo airlines also found large differences in changes in flight patterns across airlines. Overall, the airline industry is heterogeneous, with great variability across the entire industry, in each segment of the industry, and for individual airlines, as well as among individual pilots.
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airline (and other transportation) accidents.2 Of the NTSB reports for the 863 relevant accidents that occurred between 1982 and 2010, only nine of the accidents for which the investigation was complete mentioned fatigue as a probable cause or contributing factor.3 None mentioned commuting as either a probable cause or contributing factor.
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These include adverse effects of fatigue induced by sleep loss on maintaining wakefulness and alertness, vigilance and selective attention, psychomotor and cognitive speed, accuracy of performing a wide range of cognitive tasks, working and executive memory, and on higher cognitive functions such as decision making, detection of safety threats, and problem solving, as well as communication and mood. Fatigue is not, however, a binary condition in which one is either rested with no negative effects on performance or fatigued with severe negative effects on performance.
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To date, commuting has not been a major consideration in these systems. Incorporating data on commuting in relation to pilots' duty hours and sleep prior to duty would help inform these systems and allow airlines to consider mitigation strategies specific to their operations.
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As part of its data collection, the committee requested that airlines submit information on their pilot commuting, sick leave, and fatigue policies, if available. Although only a small proportion of airlines responded (39 percent)
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RECOMMENDATION 5: The Federal Aviation Administration should commission efforts to develop protocols and materials for training pi lots to make decisions regarding commuting easily and effectively and to ensure that they are informed by current decision science. As noted above, little is known about pilots' commuting patterns and the extent to which their commuting patterns may affect the amount or quality of sleep or the amount of time awake prior to duty.
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In order to be maximally useful, the study should include a large random sample of pilots from multiple companies representing the major industry segments. The study should provide objective data on fatigue risk antecedents by us ing a well-validated technology that provides reliable information on sleep and wake periods, such as wrist actigraphy, as well as sleep-wake diaries.
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