Complaint: Overworked pilots?
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Old Oct 28, 2009, 1:55 AM
jimworcs jimworcs is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Lot et Garonne, France
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Well, the pilots say that they did not fall asleep... but there are factors in this which are highly suspect. I would suggest that there ways in which more aspects to this event will come out. The CVR only records the last 30 minutes, and as the pilots were back in contact with ATC in the last 30 minutes, it will not reveal whether the pilots were discussing company policy and lost "situational awareness" or were asleep. However, the other "black box" records flight parameters and inputs and this records the last 2 hours of the flight. If this shows no pilot inputs for the period in question, this will raise significant questions about the veracity of their account. So lets see what the NTSB come up with.

On the issue of pilot fatigue, there are very serious issues of safety which arise out of the conduct of airlines in the US. There are questions relating to the exploitation of the desperation of some pilots to "break into" the industry, such that their pay is so low....or in some cases, unbelieveably, they are paying the airline for "training" whilst flying as First Officers. This should be illegal. The consequences of this drive to push down wages (which the airlines claim is just "market forces") means that pilots are having work second jobs. This is particularly a problem in the regionals. There is a very real risk of fatigue in these circumstances, in what is one of the most safety critical jobs around.

People need to wake up and smell the coffee. The market is not working and there could well be some dead people in New York as a consequence.