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Sleep and Fatigue in Pilots RMT Health and Safety Conference 22 February 2017

Pilot fatigue is a major safety issue for the airline industry. The presentation discusses the challenges of regulating pilot fatigue and the limitations of current Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS) used by airlines. While FRMS aims to manage fatigue risks, conflicting priorities between safety and productivity can undermine its effectiveness. Reporting of fatigue incidents is also inadequate. More independent scientific research is still needed to better understand and measure fatigue to support regulatory standards.

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407 views

Sleep and Fatigue in Pilots RMT Health and Safety Conference 22 February 2017

Pilot fatigue is a major safety issue for the airline industry. The presentation discusses the challenges of regulating pilot fatigue and the limitations of current Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS) used by airlines. While FRMS aims to manage fatigue risks, conflicting priorities between safety and productivity can undermine its effectiveness. Reporting of fatigue incidents is also inadequate. More independent scientific research is still needed to better understand and measure fatigue to support regulatory standards.

Uploaded by

RMT Union
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Sleep and fatigue in pilots

RMT Health and Safety Conference 22 February 2017

Rob Hunter
Head of Flight Safety
British Airline Pilots Association
British Airline Pilots Association
Founded in 1937 in the context of safety concerns in
Imperial Airways
Around 80% (n = 9,000) of all British Airline Pilots are
members

Our Flight Safety Department represents the safety


interest of pilots, we produce a safety plan and represent
pilots involved in accidents and incidents

A prominent issue is inadequate regulation being at the


root of -
pilot fatigue
inadequate pilot training
pilot difficulties with automation
British Airline Pilots Association

Pilot fatigue assessment team


Specialist in aviation medicine/pilot
Human factors scientist
Bio-mathematical modeller
Scheduling specialists x 2
PA
Presentation overview

Description of the piloting task from a fatigue


perspective
The legislation that controls pilot fatigue
Fatigue Risk Management Systems
Bio-mathematical models
Objective measurement of pilot fatigue
The airline piloting task
Essentially there are 4 executive functions performed by pilots
Piloting controlling the trajectory of the aircraft
Navigating
Communicating
Flight engineering
..and each function is automated to a degree that is user modifiable to a
degree

Across these areas the pilots


do what the automatics cant do
monitor what the automatics do
and take over when the automatics stop doing what they were meant to do.

The control of pilots hours of
duty
3 components to the regulations

The so-called prescriptive rule set, a very complex


rule set that describes quantitatively what is allowed.
E.g. max 900 hrs per year

An overarching rule set that pilots must not fly with


such fatigue as could endanger the safety of the
flight (N.B. there is no quantitative definition of the
level of such fatigue)
..and increasingly..

An exemption from the prescriptive rule set that


allows a bespoke assessment of the risk and ?? the
level of the risk by the airline, so-called Fatigue Risk
Management Systems (FRMS)
What is a FRMS

Hazard identification (e.g. knowing where the pilot fatigue is occurring


in an airline operation; receiving fatigue reports from pilots)

Tailored risk assessment (e.g. assessing the level of fatigue that is


compatible with safe flight)

Mitigations and controls (e.g. making sure that tired pilots dont fly,
making sure they get good sleep, allowing tired pilots to sleep on the
flight deck during quiet periods)

Data collection/feedback (e.g. collecting and analysing pilot fatigue


reports)

+/- a desired, sometimes regulated, or improving level of safety


In principle, the FRMS approach is sound in so far as it has the ambition
of identifying and managing all hazards appropriately.

In practice, conflicting interests held by the human designers and


enablers of the FRMS act to pervert the benefit of FRMS. The effect of
this can be to create a fatigue mismanagement system.

The vulnerabilities that lead to mismanagement are


Productivity vs safety
Not learning lessons from history; regulation generally grew out of
public safety failures.
Regulatory self-interest
Owned science
Reverse engineering; seeking the evidence to support a desired
position
10
How fatigue is managed
practically
Pilots rosters are produced a month in advance, typically
generated by optimisation software that ensure compliance
with the prescriptive rule set

There is an assumption that compliance with the


prescriptive rule set deems compliance with the overarching
rule set

Some airlines change rosters at short notice and this itself is


stressful and fatiguing

Some airlines have stable rosters and bidding systems that


give the pilots some choice around the duties that they are
assigned.
How fatigue is managed
practically
Pilot fatigue reports
There is likely to be gross under-reporting of fatigue. E.g. just
two mandatory occurrence reports of involuntary sleep on
the flight deck in 30 years!an event that probably occurs
every day, if not every hour, if not more often..

Under-reporting likely driven by


Perceived/actual jeopardy
Company reporting systems that are onerous
Other factors

No common airline standard report or scale used; we


encourage the use of the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale.
BALPA polling results of
500 airline pilots, September 2011

Have you ever involuntarily fallen asleep on


the flight deck during 2 crew operations?
Yes = 43%
..and if yes, have you ever woken to find the
other pilot asleep?
Yes = 31%
Crew sleep patterns of cockpit napping during transatlantic flights, P.
Cabon et al .
XVIth International Symposium on Night and Shiftwork,
17- 21 November 2003, Santos, Brazil.
Air Accidents Investigation Branch Report,
Serious Occurrence, G-TCBC, 17 August 2013

When he reported for this duty at 0500 hrs (0600L), he believed


he was as well rested as could be expected for that time in the
morning. Although he had not flown in the preceding week, he felt
that in the previous few months he had experienced more
technical problems than was usual. He stated that he had had in
excess of 48 hours rest prior to reporting. Examination of his roster
indicated that on the day before the incident he had been on home
standby from 0900 hrs (1000L) to 1500 hrs (1600L) but had not
been called to work
How fatigue is managed
practically

Bio-mathematical models may be linked to rosters at


the roster production stage

Interpretation of the models is typically assigned to


airline staff that do not have scientific backgrounds
s
ine
e ep Sleep &
S l
Wake history Genetics
s

Circadian
Drive Fatigue
Psychological
factors

Workload
Medical
factors
Two Process
Model
Sleepine
ss
Alertness

Circadian rhythm
Sleepiness

Time
Two Process
Model
Alertness

Time
for refusing a duty
The analysis of published rosters:
Air Navigation Order Art. 175. The operator of an aircraft must not cause or permit
any person to fly who the operator knows or has reason to believe, [is suffering
from] such fatigue as may endanger the safety of the aircraft or its occupants.
Measuring fatigue and sleepiness
objectively

EEG
Eye parameters
Wrist worn accelerometers
Infra-red reflectance oculography
Summary
Aviation is, or put more accurately, has been very safe,
however, the reliance on FRMS is new and is much more
experimental than is commonly portrayed

In our view the state of the art of pilot fatigue assessment


is not sufficiently developed to support the scale of the
reliance on FRMS as a regulatory strategy..AND..the
numbers of scientists that know the state of the art are
too few to support industry needs

Pilot associations and regulators judge fatigue to be one of


the greatest risks to aviation safety

We would like to see the setting up of an independent


fatigue science advisory panel

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