Pilots’ union says the issue has become a ‘worrying reality’ as a result of staff shortages and operation pressure
I mean is napping a problem in principle? Assuming a pilot and co-pilot are both present, the flight rules should probably be modified to allow one person to take a nap if they need it, as long as the other stays awake. Then they can take turns. Napping is a good thing.
While I’m not a pilot, I can’t see a problem with what you said there. If I was a passenger on board a plane and I knew that one of the pilots was taking a quick nap while the other one was paying attention to the controls, I honestly wouldn’t care. Some of those flights are incredibly long. The vast majority of the flight is literally just sitting there staring at controls. Catch a nap here or there that way you are awake when you need to be. I don’t have any issues with that
The airlines have been working for years to eliminate the co-pilot but I think they are still there for long haul flights. If a shorter flight is considered safe with just the pilot, a longer one should be fine with a pilot and co-pilot with one of them asleep.
No airlines are flying with single pilot crews even for short haul flights, there’s always a pilot flying and a pilot monitoring. For long haul flights they have 4 pilots onboard so that they can rotate the active crew so that the pilots can rest
Yeah quick web search found this:
https://fortune.com/2022/11/21/airlines-pushing-one-pilot-in-cockpit-passenger-jets-instead-of-two/
So it’s wishful thinking on the part of the airlines, for now.
Yeah, corporate greed overrides good sense far too often. This is the truth that conservatives who constantly rail against “big government over-regulation” like to ignore because money is more important to them than human lives. At least with (properly enforced) regulations all companies are on the same playing field, and none of them are placing themselves at a financial disadvantage compared to others by doing “the right thing” since the regulations demand they all do so.
Yes, napping in the flight deck is a problem. The point of having two pilots is redundancy, if you incapacitate one of them, what’s the point?
It’s not an outrageous requirement to be conscious during a duty day.
Sure, when you are in cruise, it’s a low threat phase of flight, but if you need a nap in cruise, chances are you were fatigued when you departed.
A much better system is to allow pilots to remove themselves from duty, without repercussions, when they are fatigued.
The article mentions the industry term controlled rest, but doesn’t explain it. Pilots are allowed to nap in flight during specific low-workload conditions after making a plan with the other pilot.
Pilots have specific duty limits in order to make sure they can be awake all the way during the flight. If they need to take a nap during flight, either those duty limits aren’t strict enough to ensure sufficient sleep or pilots are intentionally ignoring critical safety measures.
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