Pilots praise call for fatigue probe

Airline workers have welcomed a parliamentary committee’s call for a study into the long-term effects of fatigue on aircrew.

Air travel and health: an update, published last month by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, highlighted concerns raised by the BALPA pilots’ union about fatigue as a health issue.

Thanks to new technology, airlines can now set work schedules far more efficiently, so that pilots regularly have to work the maximum flying time allowed by regulations on working time. The committee recommended that airlines and unions should ensure that pilots have appropriate rest periods and that their fatigue complaints are monitored.

Jim McAuslan, BALPA general secretary said: “This is a welcome development and one which all people who care about flight safety should embrace.” He added that nearly four out of five UK pilots in a recent survey said the public should be concerned about pilot fatigue.

The committee’s report can be downloaded from www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ ldselect/ldsctech/7/702.htm