Flight Attendant Fatigue

The Departments of Transportation and Treasury and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill (House Rpt. 108-671) included a directive to the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct a study of flight attendant fatigue. The NASA Ames Research Center Fatigue Countermeasures Group (FCG) was contracted by CAMI to conduct the study. To meet the goals of the study, this report contains a literature review on fatigue as potentially experienced by flight attendants, an evaluation of currently used (actual vs. scheduled) flight attendant duty schedules, and a comparison of these schedules to the current CFRs. The report additionally reviews fatigue-related incident/accident information from the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) and the NTSB database. One report section describes the application of three different performance and fatigue models to assess how flight attendant duty schedules contribute to increased levels of fatigue and predicted changes in performance. The report concludes with 6 recommendations concerning issues that require further evaluation, including: (1) Survey of Field Operations. To assess the frequency with which fatigue is experienced, the situations in which it appears, and the consequences that follow; (2) Focused Study of Incident Reports. To better understand details of the incidents; (3) Field Research on the Effects of Fatigue. To explore physiological and neuropsychological effects of fatigue, sleepiness, circadian factors, and rest schedules on flight attendants; (4) Validation of Models for Assessing FA Fatigue. An important step to understanding whether and how models could be used in conjunction with field operations; (5) International Carrier Policies and Practices Review. To learn how other countries address these issues and with what results; and (6) Training. FAs could benefit from information on fatigue, its causes and consequences, its interaction with circadian disruption, and how and when to employ countermeasures (e.g., scheduled naps, physical activity, social interaction, caffeine).

• Record URL:
  http://www.faa.gov/data_research/research/med_humanfacs/oamtechreports/2000s/media/200721.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Federal Aviation Administration

  Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, P.O. Box 25082
  Oklahoma City, OK  United States  73125

  Federal Aviation Administration

  Office of Aerospace Medicine, 800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20591

  NASA Ames Research Center

  Human Factors Research & Technology Division
  Moffet Field, CA  United States  94035
• Authors:
  • Nesthus, Thomas E
  • Schroeder, David J
  • Connors, Mary M
  • Rentmeister-Bryant, Heike K
  • DeRoshia, Charles A
• Publication Date: 2007-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 70p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air transportation crashes; Aviation safety; Circadian rhythms; Countermeasures; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Field studies; Flight attendants; Hours of labor; International; Literature reviews; Performance; Physiological aspects; Policy; Rest periods; Training
• Uncontrolled Terms: Aircraft incidents; Fatigue models; Neuropsychology; Performance models; Sleepiness
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Education and Training; Policy; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01055542
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT/FAA/AM-07/21
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 7 2007 1:40PM