flyingmaniac
Well-Known Member
(and could it cost you your life)
http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.c...-tired-and-could-it-cost-you-your-life/49653/
January 20th, 2010, 10:00 am · 4 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
The Los Angeles Times shines a disturbing light on the plight of regional airline pilots, who often fly while very, very tired.
The pilot who told his tale of woe earned $28,000 last year - less than the average Los Angeles bus driver.
His typical work week begins (and ends) with a commute of at least 1,600 miles between his apartment in California and one of his company’s hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit, Memphis or Atlanta (travel time: three to six hours). Before his shift starts, he tries to sleep on a reclining chair in a crew lounge. About 45 minutes before taking his seat in the cockpit, he cleans up and buys the first of many large coffees he will drink during the shift (which often requires him to fly four to six flights a day, grab a few hours of sleep at a hotel, and then head back to the airport at daybreak the next morning to pilot another flight).
Gulp.
The National Transportation Safety Board says that inadequate rest has been associated with 250 fatalities in air carrier accidents over the last 16 years. And since 2002, seven of the last nine crashes in the United States have involved regional (i.e., small) carriers, the Times reports.
Pilot fatigue probably contributed to three of the regional accidents and perhaps a fourth, the NTSB said - the Continental Connection’s flight that crashed last February in Buffalo.
Read the Times’ full report here.
If you’re so moved, you may wish to register your thoughts with the NTSB’s executive director and board - but you can’t do it by convenient email. No, you must do it in writing by snailmail to this address: 490 L’Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC 20594. (Keeping up with the times, NTSB! Way to go!)
And, er, happy flying.
http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.c...-tired-and-could-it-cost-you-your-life/49653/
January 20th, 2010, 10:00 am · 4 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
The Los Angeles Times shines a disturbing light on the plight of regional airline pilots, who often fly while very, very tired.
The pilot who told his tale of woe earned $28,000 last year - less than the average Los Angeles bus driver.
His typical work week begins (and ends) with a commute of at least 1,600 miles between his apartment in California and one of his company’s hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit, Memphis or Atlanta (travel time: three to six hours). Before his shift starts, he tries to sleep on a reclining chair in a crew lounge. About 45 minutes before taking his seat in the cockpit, he cleans up and buys the first of many large coffees he will drink during the shift (which often requires him to fly four to six flights a day, grab a few hours of sleep at a hotel, and then head back to the airport at daybreak the next morning to pilot another flight).
Gulp.
The National Transportation Safety Board says that inadequate rest has been associated with 250 fatalities in air carrier accidents over the last 16 years. And since 2002, seven of the last nine crashes in the United States have involved regional (i.e., small) carriers, the Times reports.
Pilot fatigue probably contributed to three of the regional accidents and perhaps a fourth, the NTSB said - the Continental Connection’s flight that crashed last February in Buffalo.
Read the Times’ full report here.
If you’re so moved, you may wish to register your thoughts with the NTSB’s executive director and board - but you can’t do it by convenient email. No, you must do it in writing by snailmail to this address: 490 L’Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC 20594. (Keeping up with the times, NTSB! Way to go!)
And, er, happy flying.
