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WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced new rules aimed at preventing dangerous fatigue among passenger aircraft pilots.\u00a0The rules do not affect all-cargo aircraft pilots.<\/p>\nWASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced new rules aimed at preventing dangerous fatigue among passenger aircraft pilots.\u00a0The rules do not affect all-cargo aircraft pilots.<\/p>\n
The new rules are in response to a Colgan Air crash near Buffalo, N.Y., in 2009 that killed 50 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under the new rules:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Flight-duty times would range from nine to 14 hours. Additionally, rather than just counting flight time and rest time, flight-duty time would include the time spent flying to the job, which, as in railroading, is called deadheading;<\/p>\n
\u2022 Flight-time limits will be eight or nine hours, depending on the start time of the pilot’s entire flight duty.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Minimum rest periods will be 10 hours between shifts. The pilot must have an opportunity for eight hours of uninterrupted sleep during that rest period.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Pilots must have 30 consecutive hours of rest each week, which is a 25 percent increase over current standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new rules do, however, allow pilots to sit at the controls for an hour longer per day, from eight hours to as many as nine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also, pilots flying late at night, across multiple time zones or on schedules involving numerous landings and takeoffs, will work shorter shifts than those flying during the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rule also requires pilots to sign paperwork verifying that they are rested before each flight, in an attempt to educate them and highlight the need for personal responsibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The National Transportation Safety Board has urged safety enhancements to reduce pilot fatigue for decades. Although the board didn’t blame fatigue as a cause in the Colgan crash, it found that neither pilot appeared to have slept in a bed the night before the accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rules will take effect in two years, and cost passenger airlines $297 million over 10 years. The rules will, however, save airlines $247 million to $470 million in reduced accidents and lower health-care expenses for pilots, according to the FAA.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced new rules aimed at preventing dangerous fatigue among passenger aircraft pilots.\u00a0The rules do not affect all-cargo aircraft pilots. The new rules are in response to a Colgan Air crash near Buffalo, N.Y., in 2009 that killed 50 people.\u00a0 Under the new rules: \u2022 Flight-duty times would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,9,18,25],"tags":[267,28,268,1423],"member_types":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n