Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Two mesa pilots in a CRJ fell asleep, overshot one of the Hawaiian islands, headed out to sea and almost flamed out before they made it back to land. CA had OSA for sure, I believe that incident was the catalyst although the post-colgan fatigue studies probably played a role.
Also any of a number of fatigue-involved accidents might have been affected in the past. It's a reasonable suspicion, and can't be disproved.
I think I saw the number 50,000 pilots in ALPA now... and one AME quoted in an earlier article posted here said he thinks 90% of us have OSA. That's 45,000 pilots who have OSA.
So... where are all the accidents caused by OSA? I mean, we fly what, about 10,000 flights a day, in the USA alone? If 90% of these flights are being operated by pilots with OSA, there should be pilots sleeping and overshooting airports all over the country right now!
So... where are they?
You know what really causes fatigue? CRAPPY SCHEDULES! And the FAA's fix was... allow us to fly MORE, going from 8 hours per day to 9!
Now, I admit, getting the FAR changed to a shorter duty day did make much more sense, because that is what really causes fatigue, OSA or not, so there was an improvement there, but going to 9 hour flying was just stupid and a concession traded to the airline managements for the increased layovers.
Lack of Sleep Opportunity is what causes pilots to fall asleep at the wheel, much more than OSA. And I seriously doubt if 90% of us suffer from it!
. But that makes a good story and will sell a lot of machines and gadgets.