Pilot Fatigue - Safety in Flight

Pilot Fatigue:

Safety in Flight

Aviation today had some of the most serious and pressing safety issues to deal with. The increasing age of the fleet, the constant downsizing of personnel, pay cuts and companies doing what they can to stay afloat; all the while taking the concern of safety to the back burner. All of these problems do not just affect the civilian aviation community; they affect the military aviation community as well. One of the growing concerns with military aviation is the effects that sleep poses on the safety aspect of flight and operations. I will address:

1. How sleep affects safe flight

2. The Air Force's current procedures

3. A safety program designed to protect resources

Sleep is a basic primal function much the same as eating or drinking but it is often over looked when the job needs to get done at a cost to safety.

Sleep and Flight

Many of us have traveled to a different time zone in the United States or some have traveled to a different country either way we have all felt flight fatigue also known as "Jet Lag". Imagine having that feeling every day and having to work through it in a safe and efficient manner. That is the ongoing problem that pilots, either civilian or military, have to face on a daily basis.

Aircrew fatigue is a dangerous threat to the safety and effectiveness of Air Force operations. In addition to fatigue's subtle effect on performance, fatigue is also estimated to cost the Air Force over $54 million in Class A accidents each year (USAF Safety Center, Feb 02). However, despite intense study and development of effective countermeasures for ground-based personnel, researchers have performed relatively little research at overcoming fatigue in the aviation environment.

The basic causes of aircrew fatigue are insufficient sleep, disruptions to the body's clock, and extended duty periods (Edwards,