The Detrimental Normalization of Pilot Fatigue
My research on pilot fatigue and health (and you heard my presentation in Sydney), the present situation is alarming, and still deteriorating. I would like to add, that fatigue is a widespread problem in every sector of industry, health care and high risk organisations, not only but even more associated with shift work.
But for pilots fatigue is a tremendous hazard: Given the work environment at the upper end of the earth's atmosphere, responsibility for (on avaerage) 200 people's lives and aeroplanes worth some hundred millions, fatigue is an actual threat for pilots' safety and - as you see in my data - also for their health. I was wondering, how we could have come so far: Maybe pilots got used to more and more flight and duty hours per month, FTL that don't work and can't prevent pilot fatigue, threatening pilots to stay on strong, accept their schedules, accept less rest and sleep, and to never complain. First fatigue reports in EASA member states turned out to have no improvement or positive consequences, pilots didn't file fatigue reports any more. Excellent for operators and regulators, national authorities, concluding: There are NO fatigue problems.
So which pilot dares to report unfit to fly due to fatigue, if all the colleagues, suffering the same conditions, don't do so?
Pilots (like me) are trained to be strong and manage every situation as quickly as possible, with no discussion what / why ... Maybe they got used to acute and accumulated fatigue, got used to feeling worse and worse. Pilots saw their families and partners suffer from his fatigue, feeling even more guilty and even worse. Excellent ...
A German pilot and pilot prespresentative once said (May, 2018): Pilots are expected to fly and sleep. fly and sleep. They are not supposed to have a life, a family, friends, a social network, that would need some spare time. If a pilot wants to spend time with his family, he will have less time to sleep. Schedules will not change.
Or he decides to sleep, because he is deadly tired, and will step by step lose his friends and famly. Even worse for pilots health and wellbeing, when the most important resources break away ...
I am worried about what I see in my data. We can't go in like that ...