Safety board targets pilot fatigue
Ottawa urged to adopt modernized regulations to fix ‘pervasive’ problem
OTTAWA— Canadian rules that govern how long commercial pilots can be on duty are out of date and lag international standards, warns the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which is urging Ottawa to move ahead with modernized regulations.
The issue of fatigue in all modes of transport was among the urgent issues flagged by the safety board on Monday as it released its updated watchlist of safety risks facing the country’s transportation modes.
Kathy Fox, chair of the safety board, warned that the problem of fatigue is “pervasive” in transportation industries, which feature long and irregular hours, often across multiple time zones.
Fatigue has been identified as a factor in more than 90 occurrences across all modes of transport since the early 1990s, according to the board.
“To fix this, there needs to be a profound change in attitudes and behaviours, both at the management and operational levels,” Fox told a news conference on Monday.
“We think this has to be approached from a more modern, holistic, scientific perspective, recognizing that human beings need to sleep and that people working at night, particularly in the wee hours of the morning, are more susceptible to impairment by fatigue.”
The issue of pilot fatigue was thrust into the spotlight when it was identified as a factor in a near disaster last summer, when an Air Canada jet nearly landed on a crowded taxiway at San Francisco airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the tired pilots mistakenly lined up on a parallel taxiway, rather than the runway. They aborted the landing at the last minute, narrowly missing a line of jets.
Transport Canada has been working on revised rules to gov- ern how long pilots can be on duty, but facing pressure from pilot unions on one side and air carriers on the other, it has yet to move ahead with its final regulations.
“We think it’s time for (Transport Canada) to get on with it,” Fox said.
“Transport Canada itself recognizes that their current duty regulations are out of date, they are not compliant or consistent with international standards or what is known about fatigue science,” she said.
Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Monday that the government is working to finalize regulations around fatigue “as soon as possible,” starting with the aviation sector.
The safety board listed seven areas of concern. It also took at aim at safety management systems, which transportation firms, such as airlines, use to self-police their operations to detect hazards. The issue has been on the board’s radar since 2010, yet it notes that many companies are still not required to have such systems.