Is your pilot awake?

The survey of 500 commercial pilots conducted by ComRes on behalf of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) found that:

(i) 56% of pilots admit to having fallen asleep on the flight deck and, even more worryingly, of those who admitted this nearly 1 in 3 (29%) said they woke to find the other pilot asleep;

(ii) 43% said they believed their abilities have been compromised at least once a month in the last 6 months by tiredness, with 84% saying it has been compromised during the past 6 months;

(iii) 31% don’t believe their airline has a culture that lends itself to reporting tiredness concerns with only a half (51%) saying they believed their airline Chief Executive would back them if they refused to fly because of tiredness.

(iv) Unprompted, 49% said pilot tiredness was the biggest threat to flight safety, three times more than any other threat.

And to make matters worse, the European Union is set to vote on a set of rules that will allow pilots to fly a plane while being awake for between 22 to 24 hours at a stretch. The British Airline Pilots Association is trying to get the EU to change its mind. This is not the kindof news that makes you feel safe when flying those very unfriendly skies!