ALPA Pilots to Fatigue Symposium: Rest Rule Needed Now ALPA’s fatigue
experts came in full force to a leading industry symposium this week to press
for the swift issue of standardized regulations and to underscore that success
in managing aviation fatigue depends on true collaboration among the regulators,
the airlines, and employees.
ALPA pilots were among the panelists at a MITRE symposium titled “Aviation
Fatigue: Building a Bridge between Research and Operational Needs.” The
symposium attracted nearly 300 influential policy makers and researchers, and
explored how best to apply current fatigue research to military and civilian
flight operations.
“For nearly 80 years, ALPA has pushed to schedule with safety,” said Capt.
Don Wykoff (Delta), ALPA’s Flight Time/Duty Time Committee chairman, during one
of the breaks at the June 6–8 symposium held in Tysons Corner, Va. “Since 2009,
ALPA has worked side by side with regulators and the airlines in the latest
effort to develop modern regulations that reflect today’s flight operations and
equipment. ALPA will seize every opportunity to make clear our science-based
position that pilots’ bodies do not feel fatigue differently based on whether
they are flying cargo or passengers and that one standardized rest regulation
must apply to pilots in all airline operations.”
The MITRE sessions covered fatigue in scheduled operations as well as
on-demand, military, and shift work. Panel discussions looked at the current
tools that are available to measure and predict fatigue, including fatigue
models and how well they can accurately predict human performance.
Capt. Greg Whiting (United), chairman of ALPA’s Fatigue
Mitigation Implementation Committee, drew from his more than 15 years’
experience working on crew scheduling on behalf of ALPA in two separate panels
at the symposium, including one on fatigue models.
Whiting expressed pilots’ concerns that most models used to predict fatigue
are relevant to transportation modes such as trucking and rail, but not as much
to aviation workers. Whiting explained that many models don’t consider factors
such as the multiple time zone changes and the significant day-night shifts that
pilots experience, which truck drivers and train operators do not because of
geography. For this reason and others, Whiting emphasized that models can serve
as important tools, but that the airline industry should not rely solely on
models to predict fatigue. “We would like models to better reflect the
population,” Whiting said. “If we were to calibrate and show that the
predictions are correct for the target population, labor would feel more
confidence in the models.”
The symposium also covered operational strategies to mitigate fatigue, such
as Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS) that include fitness-for-duty
programs, fatigue countermeasures, and real-time fatigue measurement. Wykoff
acknowledged the tremendous value that accurate fatigue measurement plays on
individual and group levels, but he noted that fatigue measurement information
must be kept confidential and not used for industrial action or discipline.
While comprehensive FRMS programs create an additional safeguard against
pilot fatigue, Wykoff stated in no uncertain terms that standardized flight- and
duty-time regulations and a minimum rest requirement that applies to all airline
pilots are essential and that a collaborative process is necessary to
successfully implement the rule and truly enhance safety across the airline
industry.
“We need to get a rule out and get the basics in place as a proper foundation
for fatigue risk management systems,” Wykoff said. He went on to underscore the
essential role of three-part collaboration between regulators, airlines, and
employees, saying, “There is much we can do if we do it together, but, if we do
it separately, we will just repeat past failures.” |