Following Continental Connection's (Colgan Air) flight 3407 crashing near Buffalo as a result of incorrect recovery to a stall the FAA implemented new requirements for pilots. These new regulations were regarding training such as the 1500 hour rule and rest period increases. Fatigue was a very large issue in regards to this crash and there has been a lot of pushing for change, although not all of the change is for the better.
The rest periods under the new regulation have gone up to 10 hours with at least 8 of it being available to the pilot for uninterrupted sleep (FAA, n.d., pg.15, FAA, 2010). That is an increase from the 8 hour rest period from previous regulation. Companies and their pilots are strongly encouraged to make sure to get enough rest. The responsibility to mitigate fatigue is on everybody's shoulders now.
Pilot duty time has changed requiring pilots a maximum of 8 or 9 hours on duty depending on their duty start time (Trejos, 2014). They must also have a minimum of 30 hours of consecutive rest every week (Trejos, 2014). These regulations do not apply to cargo pilots. They can be scheduled to fly a lot more and at worse times for rest periods than passenger pilots. This is odd because they fly the same aircraft that fly over you and me every day. That aircraft has to be controlled by somebody and a fatigued pilot is a fatigued pilot no matter what is packed behind them. The reason for passing on regulating cargo pilots may be for economical reasons for the companies. I believe that a very big reason is that there aren't many people on board. There are the two pilots and maybe a few crew on board. That is a lot less than hundreds of passengers and the truth is that people believe if an airplane goes down and kills only 10 people it is a lot better than one going down and killing that few hundred. What about the cargo crew and their families? What about everybody on the ground waiting to get hit? One person's happiness and life is worth regulating rest periods for cargo crews.
The rest periods under the new regulation have gone up to 10 hours with at least 8 of it being available to the pilot for uninterrupted sleep (FAA, n.d., pg.15, FAA, 2010). That is an increase from the 8 hour rest period from previous regulation. Companies and their pilots are strongly encouraged to make sure to get enough rest. The responsibility to mitigate fatigue is on everybody's shoulders now.
Pilot duty time has changed requiring pilots a maximum of 8 or 9 hours on duty depending on their duty start time (Trejos, 2014). They must also have a minimum of 30 hours of consecutive rest every week (Trejos, 2014). These regulations do not apply to cargo pilots. They can be scheduled to fly a lot more and at worse times for rest periods than passenger pilots. This is odd because they fly the same aircraft that fly over you and me every day. That aircraft has to be controlled by somebody and a fatigued pilot is a fatigued pilot no matter what is packed behind them. The reason for passing on regulating cargo pilots may be for economical reasons for the companies. I believe that a very big reason is that there aren't many people on board. There are the two pilots and maybe a few crew on board. That is a lot less than hundreds of passengers and the truth is that people believe if an airplane goes down and kills only 10 people it is a lot better than one going down and killing that few hundred. What about the cargo crew and their families? What about everybody on the ground waiting to get hit? One person's happiness and life is worth regulating rest periods for cargo crews.
It would be great if cargo carriers implemented the rest regulations as the airlines have. Personally cargo flying doesn't seem as interesting as a pilot for that reason. Cargo operations seem to have below par scheduling which is discouraging as well as their work duty periods. If cargo operations were required to follow the same rest regulations as passenger carriers I am almost certain that many more pilots would be attracted to fly cargo.
References
FAA. (2010, January 27). Fact Sheet - Pilot Flight Time, Rest, and Fatigue. Retrieved February 7, 2016, from https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=6762
FAA. (n.d.). Final Rule. Retrieved February 7, 2016, from https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/rulemaking/recently_published/media/2120-AJ58-FinalRule.pdf
Trejos, N. (2014, January 3). New pilot fatigue rules go into effect this weekend. In USA Today. Retrieved February 7, 2016, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2014/01/03/pilot-fatigue-mandatory-rest-new-faa-rules/4304417/
I agree with you that cargo carriers should increase their rest and duty periods to match those of their airline counterparts. Cargo and airline pilots are doing the same job, and the risks are just as high. Unfortunately, I think the public perception of the risk of cargo operations versus passenger operations is preventing these changes from being implemented.
ReplyDeleteYour statement regarding the public perception could not be more true. The public is certainly more worried about the aircraft that they are flying in which makes sense, but that isn't the only danger to people.
DeleteI agree that the basis for the cargo carriers being except for the new regulation is based in the loss of profit for the companies. Additionally, The fact there are less individuals on board I agree most likely played a part in the cargo carriers being able to have such ludicrous crew rest regulations. If they cargo carriers were held to the same standards as the passenger pilots, I also believe that there would me a larger number of pilots wanting to flight cargo. However, with the current substandard treatment of cargo pilots it is not hard to understand why most pilots look elsewhere for employment. Like you and Morgan both stated cargo pilots and airline pilots are doing the same job and to exclude one from the obvious benefits from the new rest regulations is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI certainly believe that cargo flying would be much more desirable if the rest regulations were implemented. I am certainly one of the pilots looking elsewhere for that reason at the moment, but that outlook can certainly change if they try to make their industry more desirable.
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