Are we getting enough sleep? How does skipping or shortening a night’s rest affect your job? Those questions may seem harmless in the context of professions that involve a large percentage of time sitting at a desk while looking at a computer screen, but in the high-consequences world of flying an aircraft, adhering to regular sleep patterns or getting that extra hour or two of rest could help avoid a potentially fatal mishap.

Deborah Hersman, chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), praised the work of the National Sleep Foundation during a March 5 conference in Washington DC, noting that missing sleep and/or being tired on the job is a major concern for those in the cockpit, as well as other transportation workers on land and in the sea.

“In many respects, I think those of us in transportation policy are coming to a new awakening—a better understanding—about fatigue,” she said, adding that it’s due to the efforts of organizations like the National Sleep Foundation.

Fatigue has been on the NTSB’s Most Wanted list of safety improvements since the list was established in 1990, and traces back to the agency’s creation in 1967, according to Hersman.

“In that time, the board has issued 34 separate recommendations concerning fatigue, spanning all modes of transportation,” she said, adding that NTSB advocates for improvements in duty time regulations. While Hersman noted that some progress has been made, “we need to see more, especially in aviation and in marine, where the current rules were written before many of today’s workers were born.”

Among the risk factors that contribute to fatigue-related accidents is sleep disorders, particularly sleep apnea. Managing sleep disorders “will not only lead to a substantial reduction in the risk of transportation accidents, but will also improve the health and quality of life for those who are diagnosed and treated,” Hersman said.

Another area is policies that allow workers to “call in fatigued,” an issue that arose after a February 2007 accident where a pilot overran the runway at Cleveland-Hopkins Intl Airport during snowy conditions. Upon investigation, the captain revealed that he was unable to sleep the night before, and suffered from intermittent insomnia. Because of a fear of disciplinary action (his employer had threatened to fire him if he called in tired), the pilot did not remove himself from duty, and did not mention his lack of sleep to anyone except the copilot. Hersman’s example was one of many fatigue-related accidents she highlighted from around the transportation industry, including road- and ship-related crashes.

“My point is that we are not failing to identify fatigue in investigations, but perhaps we are experiencing our own awakening regarding the role that fatigue plays in an accident, especially when there are multiple factors present,” she said. “We can’t always prove fatigue as a cause of an accident, but the frequency with which we now routinely document the presence of fatigue-related factors in transportation operations is alarming.”
NTSB is in the midst of a study that will help develop methods for investigators to determine when fatigue contributed to an accident—an effort that Hersman believes will reach beyond the scope of the safety board.

“Educating the industry about fatigue and its implications regarding the safety of transportation is not limited to rulemaking and government action. There is a responsibility on the part of the transportation industry to have policies that allow their employees to call in fatigued. This should be a written policy that will address the implications of fatigue calls.”

Andrew Parker is managing editor of Rotor & Wing magazine. He has covered the aviation industry for more than five years. He can be reached at aparker@accessintel.com.

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