When I say “pilot fatigue” do you care? Well, you should.
Your local Louisville UPS hub employs thousands of pilots who are your neighbors, friends and relatives. Humans like you and me, with a job to do. Sometimes over long hours, long delays and crazy weather holds on the ground.
UPS ( Big Brown) also brings in about $1.6 billion Net per quarter in their operations. Wow. That’s a lot of green.
The disconnect is, big business like FedEx and UPS, along with other smaller shipping companies aren’t taking care of their pilots, or you. A few details for your perusal:
” Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010″ was to be the immediate act to support of safety measures in the industry after the Colgan Air crash.
HR 5900 encompassed all safety measures, and was to be the remedy for the new industry safety standards. There is no provision in the Current FAA bills in the house or the senate that in the conference committee that addresses this issue. They concluded this issue with last year’s law. You may confirm that with a Congressional contact with Giles Giovinazzi. He is on the Democratic /Cmte. staff of the ranking member of the aviation subcommittee.HR 5900 passed with an overwhelming vote of 411-8 ( which Yarmuth supported)This supports “one level of safety” for all operators.
H.R.5900
Latest Title: Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010
Sponsor: Rep Oberstar, James L. [MN-8] (introduced 7/28/2010)
Was it a a huge lobbying effort in Washington that big cargo business exempted from the new safety rules that allow enough rest for cargo pilots? Why do I care? Why should you?
One reason for me is because I vehemently refuse to accept that my friend Issac or Rick or Marcelo’s lives are less valuable because they fly parcels than my friends Carl, or Jeff or CJ who fly for passenger airlines.
Because on any given day or night, in Memphis , here, or any airport in the USA, while the rested Delta pilots flys safe, your FedEx plane pilot may be exhausted, therefore apt to making mistakes.
Read here how the FAA rules got caught up in the office of the OMB ( Office of Management and Budget) on the HIll, and why the stall tactics may have worked in getting the most profitable airlines ( Cargo lines) exempt from the new rules.
So what if our nations airline flight crews were so repulsed by the exclusion of the cargo carriage crews in the FAA fatigue ruling of 12/20/11, that they adopted the same strategy that the British and French pilots used recently?
What was their strategy you ask?
They didn’t go to work until their grievances and safety concerns were addressed.
Is the same type of response possible in this country?
Their tactic of not going to work, took about one and a half days to get their point across.
Do you ever why as soon as the air traffic controllers fell asleep in their tower at Washington national airport there was an instant new rule on fatigue and sleep rules for the air traffic controllers? Right, because people who control airplanes ( either in the air or on the ground shouldn’t be sleeping).
Interestingly enough, in reality, this is not as huge of a safety concern as pilots can land their aircraft without the air traffic controllers. But, because the public was outraged, lawmakers went into action.
Now if you don’t think airline pilots of any type sleep in the cockpits, think again.
” In 2009, Flight 1002, with 43 people aboard, passed over Hilo International Airport at 21,000 feet and continued straight on over open ocean before the pilots awoke and landed the plane safely. The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed an initial finding that the captain and first officer of a flight that overflew its destination in Hawaii inadvertently fell asleep while the plane was on autopilot.”
or how about this one:
A passenger jet flew 150 miles past its destination – because the 2 pilots “fell asleep.” The jet carrying 144 passengers and crew, cruised on autopilot at 37,000 feet beyond its scheduled landing at Minneapolis. Radio contact was lost with the Airbus A320 for an hour and 18 minutes.
Do you want your pilot falling asleep?
We think not.
So the FAA fixed it by making sure pilots get enough rest, sort of. The new rules only cover those passenger flights. So Delta, you can sleep. FedEx? Keep on truckin’.
I can tell you that I do know pilots, for cargo lines, that doze off in the cockpit.
Worried now?
Well, when one sleeps the other is to stay awake..but whats to stop both from dozing off in the air? NOTHING.
Clearly, whether it is in a cargo or passenger filled plane, these are humans that can fall asleep. period.
So, FAA, tell me again HOW the pilots are different?
Right.
Watch right here for a few real life experiences and stories from the air, as we anxiously await comment from our esteemed representative officials in Kentucky and Tennessee, because they have remained cautiously silent…
