As airlines cut corners, will pilot fatigue run the industry into the ground?
Filed under: Company News, Technology, Economy, People, Delta Air Lines
On Wednesday night, Northwest Airlines (DAL) Flight 188, an Airbus A-320, overshot its destination by 150 miles before the pilots re-established contact with air traffic controllers, turned the plane around, and landed in Minneapolis. While the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is still investigating the incident, questions have risen about the cause of the overflight and what it says about current airline safety regulations.
According to Flight 188's crew, the incident occurred because they were engaged in a heated argument about airline policy. While the NTSB checks the plane's flight data recorder for evidence of the alleged fight, speculation has arisen about whether the overflight was actually caused by crew fatigue.
Regardless of the cause, pilot unions, airlines, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are once again discussing a radical change in rules about pilot flight limits. Current regulations, which have been in effect since the 1960s, only allow pilots to fly for 100 hours per month or 8 hours in any 24-hour period. Although this only works out to about 25 hours per week, it doesn't take into account crowded runways, the hours that pilots spend traveling from airport to airport, and other causes of flight delay. These problems have gotten a lot worse since the 1960s and, according to the NTSB, have been responsible for at least ten accidents and 260 fatalities since 1990.
One of those accidents occurred in May 2009, when Rebecca Shaw, a co-pilot for Colgan Air, crashed a commuter plane near Buffalo, N.Y. The 24-year-old Shaw, who had one year of experience in the cockpit, was exhausted after commuting to Newark, N.J., from her home in Seattle. Meanwhile, the plane's pilot, Captain Marvin Renslow, had spent the previous night sleeping in Newark airport's crew lounge. In both cases, they were apparently far too sleep-deprived to fly.
One obvious question is why Renslow and Shaw didn't get rooms at a local hotel. The answer may be that pilot salaries are getting smaller and smaller. As Chesley Sullenberger, the famed "hero pilot" of Flight 1549, recently testified to Congress, the past few years have brought him a 40 percent drop in salary and a terminated pension. With aging pilots like Sullenberger flying longer hours for less money, it is hardly surprising that accidents are occurring.
In the case of Shaw, the salary problem was particularly acute; the NTSB has stated that her salary was $16,000 per year. While Colgan Air claims that she was paid $23,900, even that salary seems minuscule, given the amount of time that she would have to spend away from home, presumably paying for her meals and accommodations. This becomes even more ridiculous when one considers that, according to the Wall Street Journal, the average starting pay for a pilot is $36,283. Even this higher salary is below the average income for a high school graduate; given the amount of training and certification required for a pilot's license, it's downright disturbing.
In this context, it's not hard to see how conversation might have gotten somewhat heated on the flight deck of Northwest Flight 188. In fact, as a recent fistfight in an Air India cockpit demonstrated, low salaries and long hours are fraying pilot tempers around the world. As airlines continue to look for ways to cut corners and increase profits, its clear that flight crew salaries and work hours should definitely be taken off the table.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-24-2009 @ 3:36PM
Rick said...
We're all pleased to hear that this incident with NW did not result in injury or the loss of life. I'm sure we'll get some sort of explanation over the next few days.
That said, talking about "pilot fatigue" is like talking about "teacher fatigue".
We all have jobs to do, and they all come with stress. But pilot schedules (or yes, teacher schedules) are so good that they can be the envy of all folks who work. That includes other highly trained professionals.
I'm sure the unions will jump on it, but these professionals already have outstanding working conditions....
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10-24-2009 @ 3:42PM
JF Donnelly said...
Think so? Walk in my shoes for a week. I've worked in many worlds, and the ones that seem "easy" because of the stated "short hours" are the worst. Now a teacher, I NEVER have a night or weekend without work. As a (higher paid) engineer, I used to leave it all behind at the office.
10-24-2009 @ 3:48PM
andy said...
you have no idea what you're talking about. would you like your surgeon to be sleep deprived? your life is in they're hands? you don't want your pilot to be fatigued. most of the time pilots schedules are NOT so good. again, it's pretty obvious you have no idea what you're talking about.
10-24-2009 @ 4:31PM
KEN said...
Thanks for your well-informed (I'm sure) opinion, but all things considered I'd prefer to not have an over-worked underpaid pilot flying me around. When bad things happen in the air, planes can fall down and go boom.
10-24-2009 @ 4:31PM
thepoliticalcat said...
The difference between being a tired, stressed-out teacher and a tired, stressed-out pilot is the number of lives you can end because of your fatigue. A pilot is operating an enormous piece of machinery that, most likely, will kill everyone aboard and possibly quite a few in the vicinity as well, should anything go wrong. I should think pilots should be compensated accordingly. I don't want to fly on an airline where my chances of arrival intact and in good health are dubious, at best.
10-24-2009 @ 4:57PM
Tim said...
What a hack.I almost blew my Cheerios all over my Nov. edition of Southern Life.
10-24-2009 @ 8:05PM
Mel C. Thompson said...
I was a union security guard. And, contrary to what conservatives believe, unions are so outgunned by Corporate money that they're simply unable to defend their workers. I too was made to work so many weird hours in such merciless conditions that it finally destroyed my health and my sanity and I lost everything. Most unions are only able to secure the most meagre crumbs for their workers. Yes, there are few powerful unions left, which the Right pretends are really equal to Corporate America. But it's just another false equivalence. The way I was exploited, and the way these workers are being exploited is shocking and evil. And, the Democrats too, are so outgunned by the Corporations that they can't even secure a working wage for the people flying our jumbo jets. Not only is Obama not socialist, but he's a very, very strong Capitalist. Understand, his economic advisers are former heads of major corporations themselves, and/or friends of Alan Greenspan, who was an Ayn Rand believer. We workers are utterly defenseless against the still overwhelming force of Corporate Dictatorship over America.
10-24-2009 @ 10:00PM
c kallo said...
obviously you are NOT an airline employee.
10-24-2009 @ 10:12PM
Amber K. said...
Written by someone who obviously is not a teacher and doesn't know any. Teachers get about six weeks off in the summer, yes, but they work well over 50 hours a week the rest of the year. My best friend is a teacher and I don't envy her schedule one bit. Between the normal work hours, grading, meetings and school functions she must attend she works as much or more than I do even considering my paltry two weeks off a year.
10-25-2009 @ 12:38AM
braulio_ said...
Rick, I can respond to "teacher fatigue." How does one respond to school administrators increasing classroom hours from 15 a week to 20 a week to 25 a week over three years? That is three classroom preparations to four to five preparations. Then, how is one to respond when administrators increase class size limits from 25 to 30 to 40 over the same period. That effectively increases number of students from 75 to 200. What happens to standards when teachers do not have time to write tests let alone grade and record them? Who wins? Who loses? If parents cared about the educations their children received, administrators' offices would be more filled with complaining parents than they are now. An entire generation of students is being left behind.
Then, the oher question, Rick, is how one responds to the completely uninformed, those that do not have a clue about what educational institutions have become.
10-25-2009 @ 8:41AM
Yvonne said...
As a flight attendant I know something of a pilot's life and schedule. Yes, they are paid more than F.A's and certainly no one gets rich on either salary. Yes, depending on the airline and how long you have been with the company there is some flexibility and crew members do not live the normal life of most other people. Pilots and F.A's work at all hours of the day and night, sometimes being on call and being woken up by phone at 3.am to go to the airport to work a trip. Both some domestic and overseas flights causes great disturbance in sleep patterns, so some resort to tablets for sleeping. Corners are cut with accommodation as in base hotel accommodation or any other type of accommodation cost is not covered by the company. It is only covered during the trip. We often work 14hour duty days. The other day iI was picked up from my hotel at 6.15a.m, so I was up at 5.30 and then flew four legs, finished my day at 8.15p.m. and a pilot can have the same schedule. We served, greeted, assisted approximately 800 passengers in that time, many of whom were stressed, anxious, demanding and disgruntled.
Crew members spend many days away from their families, children, spouses, partners and often work holidays like Christmas, new Year, Thanksgiving. We often don't get to eat proper meals and the captain will be very grateful for his airline coffee and some peanuts and if we are lucky we might be able to grab a McDonalds in the airport before boarding. So Rick come over and join us in our "outstanding conditions"....
10-25-2009 @ 10:02AM
Joe said...
What this article fails to point out is that as pilots we are indeed limited to "8 hours of flight time" but can actually be on duty for upto sixteen hours. Four two hour flights with turn times and any delays easily turn into sixteen hour days. What's more we are often out on four day trips where we may start with an evening departure which by day three or four turn to early morning departures. The current rest rules are rediculous and most be addressed, not to mention the rediculous salaries we are now paid. Mama's don't let your babies grow up to be pilots...
10-25-2009 @ 2:30PM
Justin Turco said...
Pilots schedules and teachers schedules are NOTHING alike.
There is no comparison. You can fly an all nighter, get in at 6:30 in the morning. Then the very next day get a call at 2 in the morning informing you that you've got a trip that departs at 6:30 AM. the FAA limits a pilots Duty Day to 16 hours. I have run up against that time limit plenty of times in my 24 years of flying. And I can tell you, after a long day of multiple preflights going from one city to the next, fighting with the weather, the stress of trying to stay on time...you as a passenger do not want to be riding around with me in my 16th hour.
10-24-2009 @ 4:05PM
Steepin' Razor said...
It seems that way too many of us peasants are doing the economic royalists work by arguing that we peasants are making too much money and depriving the royals their enormous remunerations. Did any of you people not notice or have you forgotten what Warren Buffey said about the present and ongoing class war??
Buffett said, "Yes, there is a class war and my class is winning."
Do you really think you are a member of the economic royalist class?? You are sadly mistaken then because a member of that class Do Not involve themselves in blogs.
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11-16-2009 @ 10:29PM
sdel said...
May I "third that" that your comment seems clueless?
One - fine. Teachers may be tired also. That doesn't mean pilots aren't. And in addition, your teacher nodding off in class is quite a bit different than your pilot nodding off at the controls. Way to think it through!
Two - I work for an international airline and I can tell you, the physical demands of our jobs are tiring. Eight hours in the air means just that. You must THEN count: signing in for work, delays, waiting for pick-up to the hotel, transport to the hotel and back, etc etc. Eight hours in the air can easily mean 12 hours on duty (and we don't get paid ONE dime even if we sit at the gate for 6 hours with passengers on board!) That's not counting a commute from god-knows-where cause we can't afford to live in the city we're based.
I'm one of the financially lucky few who can afford to work just 15 days a month (an average given schedule) - and I'm still often fatigued. Flying is hard on the body. And even if a pilot is well rested in terms of days off, give him/her a schedule which forces us to sign-in at the airport at 5am and gives us just 10 hour layovers until the next early morning sign in - for 4 days in a row. No matter how you start, you're WIPED at the end of that. Flight crews have lots of days off because we need it. And these days our pay has been gouged so much that most need to work a double schedule to avoid financial ruin.
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10-24-2009 @ 5:59PM
Kathy Willow said...
JF: I don't think you actually read the article you are commenting on. Teachers are overworked & underpaid, plus they often pay for schoolroom supplies themselves. However! Teacher fatigue is unlikely to cause numerous deaths... unless the teacher is driving the school bus. Oddly, in my state Bus Drivers (especially school) are very well paid, and usually belong to a Union. They have strict training & hiring standards, and I am sure they earn every penny they work for.
Pilots & Teachers & Nurses are disgracefully, dangerously underpaid.
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10-25-2009 @ 4:06PM
scott said...
Teachers always complain abouy being under paid.
My brother is married to a teacher. A couple of years back, he had to have surgery. It was complicated and cost $50,000. Thanks to his wife's union-negotiated insurance, my brother's out-of-pocket expense was only $50.
Now, tack the value of an insurance policy like that on to the underpaid teacher's salary. Start with $20,000 a year.
10-24-2009 @ 4:58PM
RB said...
It is obvious to most (not all apparently) that a fatigued and underpaid pilot is not who you want to put your life in their hands. A pull instead of a push is what caused these people to die in the Colgan accident at Buffalo NY. In the case of Northwest, what you apparently have is either fatigued pilots sleeping on a normal afternoon flight or a couple of combative ex military pilots who cant seem to get along with each other. In either case they will probably go to jail because their behavior, in either case, was criminally negligent.
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10-24-2009 @ 5:08PM
burt said...
What goes around comes around.
If the US continues doing things on the cheap, we'll soon have the same conditions as in Russia.
Stay on the ground. It's better for the environment anyway.
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10-24-2009 @ 10:09PM
Scott said...
Surgeons are typically sleep deprived. One of the main reasons that I'm leaning away from choosing surgery as my specialty at the moment, even though I love doing surgery.
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