Aircrew fatigue - a review of research undertaken on behalf of the UK Civilian Aviation Authority

This report reviews the programme of work related to the sleep and wakefulness of the airline pilot that was carried out by QinetiQ, the Centre for Human Sciences and its predecessor organisation for the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). A brief review of research in this area is presented. It was found that the disruption of sleep was much greater in the eastward than after the westward flights, whith shorter and more frequent periods of sleep on layover. Readaptation after an eastward flight took longer than after a westward flight. Some individuals adapted by a phase advance while others adapted by a phase delay. Some took over a week to resynchronise their body clock with local time, and all experienced reduced levels of alertness for up to 6 days after the flight. Based on laboratory simulations carried out for the Ministry of Defence, a prototype for an automatic assessment of airline rotas was produced. The alertness of aircrew on long-haul and short-haul flights was then investigated. The SAFE model was developed to represent more closely the experiences of the aircrew and then adapted to evaluate the requirements for crew augmentation in the new generation of of ultra-long-range aircraft. The possiblity of relating the output of the model directly to accident risk is explored.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0117903698
• Corporate Authors:

  Civil Aviation Authority

  ,    
• Publication Date: 2005

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 52p
• Serial:
  • CAA PAPER 2005/04
  • Publisher: STATIONERY OFFICE

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air pilots; Airplanes; Evaluation and assessment; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Personnel; Working conditions
• ITRD Terms: 1259: Aeroplane; 9020: Evaluation (assessment); 2222: Fatigue (human); 102: Personnel; 1712: Pilot (aircraft); 2261: Working conditions
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01018417
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• ISBN: 0-11790-369-8
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Feb 2 2006 8:22AM