“I, as a casual passenger, would like to spend as less money as possible to get from A to B. This is natural and most passengers want that. But: most important I also would like to tell somebody afterwards about my awesome flight experience. This requires an airline to provide an optimal trained crew that will fly me safely from A to B. A supervising authority MUST PROTECT this crew in order to not let them become subject to the economical arbitrariness of their employer. In an occupation which requires the highest level of alertness and where even the smallest inadvertency may lead to deadly consequences, I consider a 16 hour day, not as a protection but merely as an imposition!”
(from a blog entry on the current flight duty time discussion)
According to the will of European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) it won’t be only 16 hour days, this might easily become 20, 22 and more hour days. Such long days would become perfectly legal, once the new regulation is adopted. – But will it be safe?
Apparently for the EASA the commercial concerns of the industry seem to be playing a far greater role than the safety concerns. It is becoming obvious that the opportunity to finally create truly responsible regulations – and thereby increase flight safety over the long-term – is being squandered. With the end of the period for comments on March 19th, 2012 the legislative process of EASA enters another critical phase. Now further negotiations will take place behind close doors and without public participation. This lies within the specifics of the so called “comitology procedure”, a legislative process, which lacks transparency and the representation of the travelling public.
Nevertheless and because the new EASA proposal is still ignoring scientific recommendations in regards to “fatigue” among pilots we will continue our campaign. The proposed regulation is by far exceeding what scientists believe would be reasonable. If the EASA proposal will not become considerably reworked, the safety of passengers and crews will be considerably compromised. In order to insure the highest level of safety in aviation new flight duty time regulations for Europe should be based upon scientific research and evidence. The main points of critique can be found here.
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