UN to setup new charter on combating pilot fatigue

After several recent studies that many pilots are flying whilst fatigued, the United Nations’ aviation agency announced that it is working on a new charter to better combat pilot fatigue.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will take steps to drop the existing standards to battle fatigue which only consider hours of flight time, for a new model which considers things like sleep cycles, quality of rest breaks, and even nutrition.

Using the relatively new concept of “fatigue risk management systems”, an ICAO spokesperson said the existing standards will be reviewed before June this year, and new best practices could be launched by year’s end.

Some sleep experts have placed being fatigued to being more detrimental to motor skills than being drunk.

Many pilots are concerned about current standards which only consider time up in the air, and not layover and transiting period. They have been seeking mandated rest periods to be determined by total time on duty instead.

In Europe a 47-page report released this month by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) raised serious concerns about the number of pilots who were potentially flying fatigued due to work conditions such as long hours, crossing time zones and having to work too often at night.

EASA’s report, which was written by ten experts across the EU, recommended including at least ten hours sleep for crew, meal breaks for 30 minutes ever six hours as well as a shorter 10 minute break every three hours.

In the US the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has this year introduced new rules for long-haul flights to ensure pilots receive quality rest breaks, which is already seen seven major airlines file an appeal to block the move saying it will incur “significant costs”

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