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Half of UK pilots have fallen asleep in cockpit
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More than half of British airline pilots say they have fallen asleep in the cockpit, a survey said, ahead of an EU vote on flying hours which a pilots’ association said could compromise flight safety.
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) said 56 percent of 500 commercial pilots admitted to being asleep on the flight deck and, of those, nearly one in three said they awoke to find their co-pilot also asleep.
Pilot exhaustion grabbed the headlines this week when a newspaper reported two pilots on a British long-haul flight fell asleep in the cockpit, leaving the jet unsupervised on autopilot.
The survey, released by BALPA, came ahead of a vote in the European Parliament on Monday on new rules which could replace British regulations.
BALPA, a trade union for pilots, voiced concerns that these proposed changes would water down British safety standards.
The rule changes would mean that pilots could work a maximum of 110 hours in a two-week period, more than the 95-hour limit under British regulations, and at night could be expected to fly for up to 11 hours, against a current 10-hour limit.
“Tiredness is already a major challenge for pilots deeply concerned that unscientific new EU rules will cut UK standards and lead to increased levels of tiredness, which has been shown to be a major contributory factor in air accidents,” BALPA General Secretary Jim McAuslan said.
The survey of pilots, by pollster ComRes, found 84 percent of respondents believed their abilities had been compromised over the last six months by tiredness with almost half saying pilot exhaustion was the biggest threat to flight safety.
The Civil Aviation Agency, the UK’s aviation regulator, said the new rules “maintain the UK’s current high safety levels.”
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