I had some trouble following the link here is the story the video seems to be re-linked.

I would of liked this to get some National Coverage.

Tired pilots forced to sleep on plane

12:10 PM CST on Wednesday, November 22, 2006

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV

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Pilots admit to sleeping on the plane between flights.
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Tired and broke.

Those words could describe a lot of Americans.

But how about the pilot at the controls of that plane you'll be flying on this Thanksgiving?

When they climb into the cockpit they might have spent the night before "camped out" on the plane.

We're talking about pilots who fly for regional airlines.

Their regional jets may be painted in the colors of American, Delta, United or U.S. Airways.

But they work for separate entities, often controlled by smaller companies.

Some of these pilots make as little as $18,000 a year.

And they say that because of brutal schedules and unsettled living conditions they're exhausted.

Pilots at 30,000 feet, going 500 mph, are so tired they depend on intercom calls from the cabin to keep them awake.

"We also have a flight attendant in the back who sometimes will call up to make sure we're awake. They'll call up on the phone between us and make sure we're not nodding off," said one pilot.

Once on the ground there's another sleep challenge.

Pilots are forced to make their plane into a bedroom.

After raising the armrests, placing a piece of luggage in the aisle, and removing a cushion from another row, seats are made into beds.

Pilots take off their ties and hang up their shirts.

"You don't want to look unprofessional after sleeping in an aircraft," another pilot said.

"There are some people that bring sleeping bags and pillows and their own blankets so they don't have to use the airline blankets."

In airline slang, this is called 'a camp out.'

The most extreme version of what's known as a continuous duty overnight. One of the practices that makes exhaustion part of being a pilot at a regional airline.

"It feels like every cell in your body has a headache," a pilot said.

"You can easily put in a 60-hour workweek," said another.

Here's how.

Federal regulations limit flight time to 30 hours a week.

To log that time, a regional pilot might fly as many as 15 flights over a three to six day period.

Each flight is separated by down time and potential delays. Workdays stretch to 15 hours and each day is different.

"Four times a month you're switching from a daytime to nighttime schedule," said a pilot.

That would be a continuous duty overnight. It might include two night flights, ending early in the morning, followed by three hours off in the middle of the night.

That's when they're forced to sleep on the plane. Technically, they're still on duty, they physically just need rest.

All this is legal because federal regulations say a pilot must simply get eight hours of sleep before the workday started.

Still, pilots say their bodies tell them they're exhausted by shifts that last through the night. And it scares them in the cockpit.

"You know if there's an engine fire, an engine failure happens right now I don't think I'll have the resources to handle it," said a pilot.

Mesa Airlines in Phoenix is best known among pilots for using schedules which require campouts.

Mesa operates four regionals in North America with 1800 pilots and nearly 200 planes, some of which fly into Dallas under the U.S. Airways brand.

Mesa pilots were afraid to talk with us for fear they'd be fired and the airline did not respond to several inquiries about its policies.

We asked the Regional Airline Association, the trade group for regional airlines, about pilot fatigue.

"We want to have well rested crews and we build our schedules accordingly," a spokeswoman Deborah McElroy said.

But pilots say fatigue can warp their perspective.

"I just want to get home. I want to get to sleep. I don't care what happens. I don't care about this maintenance issue," a pilot said.

Pilot rest rules were modified in the 1980s, but the airline business has changed dramatically since then.

The FAA began re-drafting the regulations 11 years ago. But pilots and airlines have not been able to agree on a final version. In a written statement the FAA told News 8: "Our current rules are fundamentally sound... but... the FAA's door is open," for finishing new standards.

Pilots say it will take a catastrophe.

"There's a basic saying that FAA regulations are written in blood. And unfortunately that's what it will take to get these regulations changed," a pilot told WFAA.

Overnights are common among most regional and mainline carriers, including American Eagle.

There's one major exception. Southwest Airlines. Southwest is not a regional airline.

It now carries more passengers than American. But Southwest eliminated standup overnights more than a decade ago and Southwest says its pilots receive an average of 11 hours rest between shifts.

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