Notices
Safety Accidents, suggestions on improving safety, etc

The Cargo Cutout

Old 12-21-2011, 06:14 AM
  #1  
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
 
Timeoff2fish's Avatar
 
Joined APC: May 2006
Position: I'm On a Boat
Posts: 218
Default The Cargo Cutout

FAA issues rules to prevent tired airline pilots

By JOAN LOWY
The Associated Press

10:11 a.m. Wednesday, December 21, 2011
WASHINGTON — Rules aimed at preventing airline pilots from flying while dangerously fatigued were issued Wednesday by the Federal Aviation Administration, a move safety advocates have been urging for more than two decades.

The rules update current pilot work schedule regulations, which largely date back to the 1960s, to reflect studies on how much time pilots need for rest and an understanding of how travel through time zones and the human body clock's response to light and darkness can affect performance.

Carriers have two years to adapt to the new rules. The FAA estimated the cost to industry at $297 million over 10 years, a fraction of the $2 billion a year that an airline trade association had estimated a draft proposal released by FAA over a year ago would cost.

The new rules come nearly three years after the deadly crash of a regional airliner flown by two exhausted pilots. Family members of the 50 people killed in the accident near Buffalo, N.Y., have lobbied relentlessly for more stringent regulations.

The rules would limit the maximum number of hours a pilot can be scheduled to be on duty — including wait time before flights and administrative duties — to between nine and 14 hours. The total depends upon the time of day pilots begin their first flight and the number of time zones crossed.

The maximum amount of time pilots can be scheduled to fly is limited to eight or nine hours, and pilots would get a minimum of 10 hours to rest between duty periods, a two-hour increase over the old rules. Pilots flying overnight would be allowed fewer hours than pilots flying during the day.

But cargo carriers — who do much of their flying overnight when people naturally crave sleep — are exempted from the new rules. The FAA said forcing cargo carriers to reduce the number of hours their pilots can fly would be too costly compared to the safety benefits.

Imposing the rules on cargo airlines like Federal Express or United Parcel Service would have added another $214 million to the cost, FAA officials said.

The exemption for cargo carriers runs counter to the FAA's goal of "one level of safety" across the aviation industry. It's also certain to provoke complaints from pilot unions, who point out that cargo pilots suffer from fatigue the same as pilots for passenger-carrying airlines. And, while cargo planes aren't carrying passengers, the risk to the public on the ground from an air crash is just as great.

The charter airlines that transport nearly 90 percent of U.S. troops around the world had also lobbied heavily for an exemption to the new rules, saying military missions could be jeopardized. But FAA officials rejected those pleas.

The new rules give "pilots enough time to get the rest they really need to safely get passengers to their destinations," FAA Acting Administrator Michael Huerta said.

The rules will prevent about one and a half accidents a year and an average of six deaths a year, FAA officials said. They will also improve pilots' health, officials said.

Researchers say fatigue, much like alcohol, can impair a pilot's performance by slowing reflexes and eroding judgment. The National Transportation Safety Board has been campaigning for two decades for an overhaul of pilot work schedule rules. An effort by the FAA in the late 1990s to develop new rules stalled when pilot unions and airlines were unable to find common ground.

That effort was revived after the February 2009 crash Continental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo. Neither pilot appeared to have slept in a bed the previous night. The flight's captain had logged onto a computer in the middle of the night from an airport crew lounge where sleeping was discouraged. The first officer had commuted overnight from Seattle to Newark, N.J., much of the time sitting in a cockpit jumpseat. They could be heard yawning on the ill-fated flight's cockpit voice recorder.

However, by a 2-1 vote the NTSB decided not to cite fatigue as a contributing factor to the crash. The board agreed that the captain's incorrect responses to a stall warning caused the accident, and that other pilot errors contributed to the crash. But investigators said it wasn't possible to determine whether those errors were the result of fatigue.

But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and former FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt vowed to put strong fatigue rules in place.

"We made a promise to the traveling public that we would do everything possible to make sure pilots are rested when they get in the cockpit. This new rule raises the safety bar to prevent fatigue," LaHood said in a statement.

The families of victims killed in the crash won congressional passage of a law requiring the FAA to issue new rules by Aug. 1 of this year, but the White House Office of Management and Budget delayed release of the rules.

Safety advocates applauded the new rules.

The changes replace "rules that were dangerously obsolete and completely ineffective," said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va. "The rule applies fatigue science in a way that makes sense."

__
Timeoff2fish is offline  
Old 12-21-2011, 06:17 AM
  #2  
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
 
Timeoff2fish's Avatar
 
Joined APC: May 2006
Position: I'm On a Boat
Posts: 218
Default

I'm off to bed as I am naturally craving sleep.

Maybe now we can get down to REAL section 6 negotiations.
Timeoff2fish is offline  
Old 12-21-2011, 06:39 AM
  #3  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: May 2006
Position: DC-8 756/767
Posts: 1,141
Default

Did you guys just hear that?? It was the loud cheers and celebrations from ATL and SDF! Should we have expected anything else? Just goes to show you that if you have enough money, you can buy about any regulation you want from DC.
UPSFO4LIFE is offline  
Old 12-21-2011, 07:45 AM
  #4  
Proponent of Hysteria
 
skypine27's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Jun 2007
Position: "Part of the problem." : JL
Posts: 1,052
Default

Does this make sense to anyone?

"But cargo carriers — who do much of their flying overnight when people naturally crave sleep — are exempted from the new rules. The FAA said forcing cargo carriers to reduce the number of hours their pilots can fly would be too costly compared to the safety benefits."

So the way I read it is:

We do things even more ****ed up than the pax carriers do therefore it would cost our companies even more to comply, so forget it?

Great minds at work.
skypine27 is offline  
Old 12-21-2011, 07:48 AM
  #5  
Gets Weekends Off
 
HazCan's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Feb 2007
Position: headbanging
Posts: 954
Default

Check out this from page 27:

In addition to the concerns expressed by non-scheduled air carriers, the Cargo Airline Association (CAA) and a number of air carriers operating all-cargo flights have also objected to the proposed rule applying to supplemental operations. These industry commenters asserted that, while a passenger-operation accident can result in numerous fatalities, an all-cargo accident would consist primarily of property damage.

Puke.
HazCan is offline  
Old 12-21-2011, 07:55 AM
  #6  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Jul 2007
Position: 744 CA
Posts: 4,772
Default

I am now reduced to being property damage...wonderful.
HercDriver130 is offline  
Old 12-21-2011, 08:45 AM
  #7  
Line Holder
 
Joined APC: Dec 2007
Position: Hanging on by my little ratclaws...
Posts: 69
Default

Clark: [realizes his bonus is a jelly-club membership] If this isn't the biggest bag-over-the-head, punch-in-the-face I ever got, G-D IT!
[kicks widly at the presents under the tree]

Clark: Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Michael Huerta, FAA Acting Administrator, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, d**kless, hopeless, heartless, fat-***, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey ******* he is! Hallelujah! Holy *******! Where's the Tylenol?
DixieFlyer is offline  
Old 12-21-2011, 08:54 AM
  #8  
Thx Age 65
 
HoursHore's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Jul 2005
Position: MD11CAP
Posts: 1,041
Default

So nice to see your life value traded for a few cents of shareholder value.
HoursHore is offline  
Old 12-21-2011, 09:12 AM
  #9  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Sep 2010
Posts: 419
Default

"It was tough to implement it on cargo because of the cost-benefit to this," LaHood said. RIGHT! It is tough when the hugely profitable cargo carriers offer hundreds of millions in lobby money to exempt Cargo carriers...that operate widebody aircraft from the same airports/space. The pax and cargo carriers spend many times more in a quarter on lobbying than the annual costs Mr. LaHood mentions as a result from this rule change. This bull is sprayed dispite the companies having to report massive Qtly expenditures on their lawyer lobby.
He with the most money wins...their should be some big bonuses handed out for this win.

Last edited by ChrisJT6; 12-21-2011 at 09:42 AM.
ChrisJT6 is offline  
Old 12-21-2011, 11:02 AM
  #10  
Line Holder
 
7Arrows's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Jun 2010
Position: 777 F/O
Posts: 55
Default

"The Tenerife airport disaster occurred on March 27, 1977, when two Boeing 747 passenger aircraft collided on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport (now known as Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. With a total of 583 fatalities, the crash is the deadliest accident in aviation history."

Any cargo guys ever taxi around passenger planes? Let's see, 583/2 = 291.5 (Don't count the cargo crew, obviously)

Oh well, lost this round. TCAS, EGPWS, FFDO etc. Fight On!
7Arrows is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
RockyTopFlyer
Cargo
6
11-24-2011 02:53 PM
Freight Dog
Major
0
11-16-2011 03:04 PM
skypine27
Cargo
53
08-18-2011 08:22 AM
StripAlert
Mergers and Acquisitions
354
07-07-2008 08:05 PM
Freighter Captain
Major
24
02-03-2008 08:59 PM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread
Your Privacy Choices