A wake-up call; Pilot fatigue happening too often, union says
 

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...3-5e807491ea94

Air safety is being jeopardized by too many pilots forced to fly too many hours without enough rest between trips, the head of the world's largest airline pilots' union said Wednesday.

"You can't land an airplane at 200 miles per hour when you're so tired you can barely stay awake," Air Line Pilots Association president John Prater said in an interview. "Yet some of our pilots are being pushed that far."

About 70 ALPA representatives met Wednesday in Vancouver and agreed to form a committee to examine the pilot fatigue issue and complete a report by May 2008.

ALPA represents 61,000 pilots who fly for 41 airlines in the U.S. and Canada, including Air Canada Jazz, Air Transat, and Kelowna Flightcraft Ltd.

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Air Canada Pilots Association representative Stephen Guetta said Canadian flight and duty time regulations sometimes fall below U.S. and European standards. He said U.S. pilots can only fly up to eight hours before taking a mandatory rest break, but there are situations where Canadian pilots can go 12.5 hours before taking a break.

Guetta said federal regulators are aware of the differences among global aviation standards and have encouraged Canadian airlines to participate in a fatigue risk management study to look at pilot fatigue associated with certain routes.

"Safety issues shouldn't be drawn into the negotiating table," he said. "They should be discussed right across the board and made applicable to all carriers and all pilot groups so it's removed from the competitive equation."

Air Canada representative Angela Mah said the airline has taken a leadership position on the pilot fatigue issue in Canada, noting its standards fall well within Canadian aviation regulations.

She stressed the airline has never pressured a crew to operate a flight if they felt they were too tired.

ITs going to be nasty in 2009...... the Union is already creating trouble,,

Simple.

Work them less. Pay them according to time worked (meaning less pay).

And hire new pilots.

Could it be that easy. :D

With the change in the value of the $, and the cuts US carriers have been demanding from their pilots, AC's are likely the best paid and fly the least hours among the NAmerican legacy carriers. RM's book makes this point very clearly, and this has been the cause of friction between him and the union since he came on board.

agreed, but i'm sure the union will want more money and work less hours.

What union doesn't? ;)

They had better watchout it is a two way street, the airlines are doing a study of their own. Their findings will impact pilots personal lives. Some of the findings that impact fatigue the most is:

Obesity
Smoking
Drinking Alcohol
Generally being out of shape.

So if they push to hard on the fatigue issue it will impact them, because their main argument is Aviation safety. This will ultimately force them to modify medicals and standards.