When your employee is asleep on the job, that's bad. When your employee is asleep on the job and that job happens to be flying airplanes, it's worse. Much worse. Which is why the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is insisting that the FAA wake up and do something about the problem of pilot fatigue. "The Safety Board is extremely concerned about the risk and the unnecessary danger that is caused by fatigue in aviation," says NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker . "We've seen too many accidents and incidents where human fatigue is a cause or contributing factor." Despite his concern, the board's recommendations are vague at best -- it suggests that the FAA develop a "fatigue management system" that includes education programs and new scheduling procedures, but it falls short of requesting that the FAA modify the rules that dictate the number of hours pilots are allowed to work. The sleep-related incidents cited by the NTSB don't exactly inspire confidence in the FAA's current system. In two of them, pilots either skidded off of or overran their runway, and in another, a plane crashed into a cluster of trees on its final landing approach, killing two pilots and 11 passengers. If those examples are troubling, then this one is downright scary: a flight bound for Hilo, Hawaii overflew it's destination by 26 miles, and it took air traffic control 18 minutes to get a response from the flight crew. Why? Because both pilots were snoo ...
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When your employee is asleep on the job, that's bad. When your employee is asleep on the job and that job happens to be flying airplanes, it's worse. Much worse. Which is why the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is insisting that the FAA wake up and do something about the problem of pilot fatigue. "The Safety Board is extremely concerned about the risk and the unnecessary danger that is caused by fatigue in aviation," says NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker . "We've seen too many accidents and incidents where human fatigue is a cause or contributing factor." Despite his concern, the board's recommendations are vague at best -- it suggests that the FAA develop a "fatigue management system" that includes education programs and new scheduling procedures, but it falls short of requesting that the FAA modify the rules that dictate the number of hours pilots are allowed to work. The sleep-related incidents cited by the NTSB don't exactly inspire confidence in the FAA's current system. In two of them, pilots either skidded off of or overran their runway, and in another, a plane crashed into a cluster of trees on its final landing approach, killing two pilots and 11 passengers. If those examples are troubling, then this one is downright scary: a flight bound for Hilo, Hawaii overflew it's destination by 26 miles, and it took air traffic control 18 minutes to get a response from the flight crew. Why? Because both pilots were snoo ...