Call for change to laws on pilot fatigue

LONG flight times, night flights, shift work, jet lag and early starts are all factors in cockpit fatigue that need to be addressed through changes to existing regulations, according to pilots’ unions.

Today, the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) is taking part in a second European Action Day calling for a change to EU laws on pilot and cabin crew fatigue.

According to IALPA, pilots are operating in an environment where the fatigue law is potentially unsafe.

Adrian Hinkson, safety and technical director for IALPA, said the EU has scientific evidence illustrating this, but has failed to act on it one year after receiving the Moebus Report – a study which claimed that a number of existing European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) rules and proposed rule changes conflict with scientifically developed principles of fatigue prevention.

Moebus researchers said they were especially concerned with provisions that allow a large number of duty hours in a short time. They also said the maximum daily flight duty time of 13 to 14 hours “exceeds reasonable limits, especially under exacerbating circumstances (eg high workload, night flying etc) and should be reduced”. The results of the study were denounced by the Association of European Airlines. The association said it “arrives at conclusions which are oblivious to the evidence of decades of safe operation”.

However, pilots’ unions have called on the EU to take the study’s findings on board. Yesterday, Mr Hinkson said it showed current law was unsafe.

“The European Commission and the EASA have the Moebus Report in their hands a year, it was officially published in January, yet nothing has been done and as far as we can see, they are bowing to pressure from the airlines and we are the meat in the sandwich,” Mr Hinkson said.

A survey in the US found 80% of 1,424 flight crew members from regional airlines said they had “nodded off” during a flight. Mr Hinkson said fatigue meant there as a 10% chance both pilots in the cockpit could experience microsleeps at the same time during flight.

Mr Hinkson said existing regulations meant airlines could plan for 13-hour shifts, which could be extended by up to two hours. He said this discretion allowed airlines to extend flying time on up to 60% of their flights “before doing anything about it”.

He said the regulation was “vague in places and open to wide interpretation” – which was down to national authorities to police – but this was made difficult by virtue of the fact that many airlines, such as Ryanair and Easyjet, operate on a pan-European basis.

Mr Hinkson said a key area of concern for them was use by airlines of a “split duty”. where pilots operate a low, long-haul flight, sleep for a couple of hours and then return to flying with inadequate rest periods.

Mr Hinkson said they also wanted the introduction of a confidential reporting system – a requirement enshrined in law some time ago when the EU introduced regulations each state was supposed to adopt.

A spokesperson for the Irish Aviation Authority said a mechanism for confidential reporting was “something that is actively being looked at between ourselves and the Department of Transport”. She also said they had flight time limits in place for each of the airlines they regulate, tailored to each airline.

“We are satisfied with each of the schemes that Irish airlines operate and whatever new directives are introduced at European level, we will adhere to those,” she said.