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Not Fit to Fly
Photo Credit: Josh Hallett
Hearing about the fatigue factor involved in Continental's February plane crash on a cold, icy night near Buffalo, New York has been horrifying. According to the latest reports from the NTSB, the main cause of the crash is being blamed on the crew's lack of experience and lack of sleep (lack of proper conduct in the cockpit, too, which certainly stems from a lack of experience and sleep).
Have you ever wondered:
- When you step on to a plane, how alert are your pilots?
- Have they just gotten off a transcontinental flight and haven't slept in a day - or two?
- Have they been working the graveyard shift and catching some Zs on a couch in the terminal before taking control of your plane?
- Are they feeling fuzzy and spacey as they continue to fight a nagging cold bug (which really prefers them to be sleeping more)?
- How much does sleep factor into performance...even when an emergency happens suddenly?
To quickly answer that last question, sleep plays a huge role in the ability to perform, even when it comes to basic skills we've done over and over again. And thinking about our pilots' alertness is probably not something that enters our minds as we're boarding planes and getting organized in our seats, but the thoughts are crossing millions of grounded minds this week as more news emerges about the fate of that February ride.
The history books are loaded with similar stories: the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster, and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role.
The NRMA (National Roads and Motorists Association) estimates fatigue is involved in one in 6 fatal road accidents. In fact, 17 hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%. Too bad "sleepy driving" doesn't have the same buzz to it as "drunk driving."
Sorry, but sleep deprivation - regardless of your job - is not a badge of honor. Pilots aside, think of all the jobs that rely on alertness in critical, potentially life-threatening scenarios: ER doctors, surgeons, ground transportation drivers, air-traffic controllers, freight train engineers, etc. The sad part is the challenge of ensuring our pilots, drivers, controllers, and so forth are indeed fit to be at the helm. What can we do?
- Have them keep journals of their sleep/wake cycles?
- Invent a test they can take to measure their alertness prior to clocking in?
- Enforce stricter guidelines for when, say, a pilot, can be in the cockpit after a certain stretch of wakefulness?
It's all a hotly contested debate. No one is perfect. But we demand perfection in certain situations when the lives of people are at stake. May this recent incident and ongoing investigation shed a brighter light on the importance of sleep hygiene and the value of ensuring our public servants get all the sleep they need.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD, FAASM
The Sleep Doctor
This article on sleep is also available at Dr. Breus's official blog, The Insomnia Blog.
Related Topics:
- Sinus, Snoring, Sleep Apnea: Jordan S. Josephson, MD
- Sleep Disorders: Member Discussion
- Get the Sleep Well newsletter in your inbox weekly
Labels: fatigue, sleep deprivation
6 Comments:
You’re posts are really interesting. I collaborate threads like these for a blog on http://SleepSolutionzzz.com would you like to have yours posted there too?
Edit - to make it easier http://sleepsolutionzzz.com
I think part of the problem is the long commutes these pilots make. Media reports said the first officer's pay was so low she could not afford to live near her base. So she commuted from Seattle to Newark. If the government is going to change anything here, maybe they should limit the commutes pilots make to their bases. The first officer's pay was low, no doubt, but it would not have been that low for long. Pilots need to do what the rest of the world does and move to where their jobs take them. It would save lives, and certainly reduce pilot fatigue.
That is sad...I know a pilot..and his entire family...mother, father, wife, children (in school and established)...needs to commute to Newark for his flights...why should he uproot his entire family when they are established...and his flights are changed almost yearly...he would be moving all the time..if he moved everytime they changed where he flies out of. Maybe the airlines need to pay more..or have pilots flying less hours..instead of cutting back..and making the pilots fly so many hours!
I really like this blog! This is scary to think that a pilot flying us can be sleep deprived and our lives are depending on him.
Pilots are people just like you and suffer from the same human weaknesses. Pilot's, especially military pilots, which make up more than one half of the commercial pilot's in the U.S. are trained to be in tune with their bodies and perform a personal health assessment before each day/flight. Pilot's are the safest drivers of automobiles which again attests to their mastery of ORM or Operational Risk Management. Unfortunately Pilots, Doctors, basically anyone other than a professional athelete is underpaid these days. Who has hundreds of lives in their hands each day and makes $ 18,000 a year. It is ridiculous. People will pay $200 for Air Jordan's but will not pay $300 to fly round trip across the country.
The FAA also needs to change it's policies on sleep disorders. A pilot can be a ticking time bomb as far as cholesterol, or blood pressure. But if they have sleep apnea they can kiss their careers good by. Wouldn't it make more sense to allow those pilots to get treatment?
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