Fatigue has always been a problem in aviation and has been something that aviation safety investigators have long tried to combat the best they can. Despite their efforts, there have been accidents that have been as a result of fatigue. Some of these accidents include: Colgan Air flight 3407, Air France Flight 447, Korean Air flight 801, American Airlines flight 1420, and GO! flight 1002. As stated before, these accidents were as a direct or indirect result of some type of fatigue. However, this fatigue effected each flight crews performance differently, and that is what we will look at here, how the flight crews and their performance were effected.
The first and maybe, most profound modern example of fatigue in modern aviation safety history. This aircraft crashed in Buffalo, New York on February 12, 2009 killing all 49 people on board as well as 1 on the ground.“A safety board member, Deborah A. P. Hersman, said Wednesday that Ms. Shaw had told one FedEx pilot that there was a “couch with my name on it” in the Colgan pilot’s lounge in Newark where she would sleep” (Wald, 2013) . Ms. Shaw was the first officer on that particular flight, and this statement by her, through the board member demonstrates clearly that Colgan Air was forcing their pilots to commute even when sufficient rest was at stake. This is what led to the pilots overlooking several important indicators, as well as, completely and totally disregarding the sterile cockpit rules long established by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According to reports, Colgan Air, well before this tragic accident, was putting their passengers at risk with making their pilots commute even at the expense of getting sufficient rest (Wald, 2013) .
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The next flight that is tells us a bit about the effects of fatigue on pilots is the crash of Air France flight 447 which crashed on June 1, 2009 flying from Rio Di Janeiro to Paris. This accident, tragically, killed all the passengers and crew on board. According to reports the pilot on this flight was ‘dangerously fatigued’ (European Cockpit Association, 2013) . The Telegraph later reported that “The captain of an Air France plane which crashed into the sea with the loss of all 228 people on board had only slept one hour the previous night after a romantic jaunt in Brazil with his girlfriend” (Samuel, 2013) . This source did not say if it was the captain that was flying at the time of the accident or the captain over the entire flight. This does, however, show a lack of responsibility of the captain, and quite probably, the flight crew. There is no doubt that this accident was avoidable and fatigue was only one part of the totality of circumstances that led to these passengers needlessly losing their lives.
Korean Air flight 801 crashed in Guam in 1997. This crash killed all 228 people on board. During this period of time Korean Air was in trouble because of the amount of accidents their aircrafts were having. The National Transportation Safety Board did cite fatigue as a causal factor, among many other things. “One was the fatigue of the captain, who did not follow procedures for landing when the instrument landing system is not operating properly, a condition the flight crew had been made aware off at least three times” (The Associated Press, 1999) . Landing is one of the most complex and stressful part of any flight from private flights to commercial flights and fatigue can cause many small errors t o turn quickly into catastrophe. The NTSB also said, “the captain of Korean Air Flight 801 failed to brief the flight crew of the potential complications in the landing and then became preoccupied with a partially inoperative instrument landing system” (The Associated Press, 1999) . Even though the NTSB did not state this, fatigue is likely a factor in the captain of the flight developing tunnel vision. Unfortunately, because of Korean culture and its influence in the cockpit, the other members of t he flight crew were not able to, again because of culture, to speak out assuming they noticed the captain’s errors.
"I believe fatigue was a significant factor in this accident," Evan Byrne told National Transportation Safety Board members at a public hearing Tuesday to review the agency's final report on the crash. The captain and 10 passengers were killed, and more than 100 others were injured” (Lewandowski, 2001) . While this accident did not fatally injure most of the people on board, it was caused by pilot fatigue, which caused the pilot to make errors.
Distracted by rapidly deteriorating weather conditions and fatigued by a long work day, the flight crew of American Airlines Flight 1420, which crashed at the Little Rock Airport in June 1999, forgot to turn on the automatic spoiler system that would have stopped the plane before it ran out of runway, federal investigators have concluded. (Lewandowski, 2001)
Deteriorating weather conditions are something that pilots have to face, but a fully alert pilot should remember to deploy the spoilers upon touchdown, which would be critical to a safe landing and, if done in this case, would have, probably, prevented the accident entirely.
GO! Flight 1002 is probably the most severe example of fatigue as a member of the flight crew stated “The warm Hawaiian sun was blaring in as we went eastbound. I just kind of closed my eyes for a minute, enjoying the sunshine, and dozed off." The first officer said he entered a sleep-like state from which he could "hear what was going on, but could not comprehend or make it click” (National Transportation Safety Board, n.d.) . Various other reports stated that pilots of this airline regularly slept in the cockpit of aircrafts (Croft, 2008) . There is no specific information as to why this was, but given past information we know about how airlines schedule pilots, the airline was probably scheduling the pilots on very short turn around that would, inevitably, cause fatigue. While airlines, such as, GO! Have economic a reason for doing this, safety has got to be paramount in the aviation industry, and while safety does add more costs, so do accidents such as this one.
“If pilots are fatigued, the question is why. Night flying, jet lag, and unpredictable shifts - common throughout the airline industry – are partly to blame” (Nunes, 2017) . The airlines, major and budget, have long known about the problem of fatigue in pilots, but have long failed to act to solve the problem in a complete way causing accidents, as talked about earlier. What are the airlines doing about it? There is an interesting way happening right now, and that is automation. While automation in aircrafts does take stress and workload off of pilots, it can cause pilots to have some level of complacency in the cockpit or lose the raw piloting skills that are vitally important in an emergency situation. While Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) part 117 is very strict in what it says about fatigue, this type of extensive regulation is not in place in many other parts of the world (Wyman, 2017) .
In order to properly evaluate the psychology of fatigue we have to look at the effects of fatigue on person’s mental state overall. To do this will look at a study about fatigue and the SAT Reasoning Test. “The literature shows that when mental tasks are performed, the primary fatigue factors include time of day, testing time, type of task, personal states such as anxiety or motivation, and external circumstances” (College Board, n.d.) . Even though this is pertaining to the SAT test, these concepts still pertain to pilots. Pilots are performing far more mental tasks then people taking the SAT, so these effects are, more than likely, are going to be severely amplified.
The problem of fatigue tends to be exaggerated in long haul pilots where constant time zone changes effect the body’s ability to get a circadian rhythm. This stress alone can cause more fatigue in these pilots then in domestic pilots who don’t have the constant and extreme changing of time zones to face. However, in aviation, the threat of fatigue, in domestic flying at least, has been lack of sleep because of quick turnaround times.
The Psychology today website recommends being more active when fatigue is playing a major role (Psychology Today, 2015) . However, pilots do not have this option when performing their duties in the cockpit. The only way they can fight fatigue is by taking naps in the cockpit, and while this is rare and almost never utilized, it is not something that most passengers would feel comfortable knowing.
Psychology Today has also recommended in fighting fatigue that caffeine intake be significantly reduced in order to not experience the crash from the caffeine being eliminated from the body.
Although fatigue has significant implications for the well-being and performance of an individual, it is poorly understood even by the scientists. Furthermore, the three major types of fatigue including mental, physical, and sleepiness are frequently confused. It is in this regard that it becomes increasingly vital to assess the psychology of fatigue. Psychologically, fatigue can be viewed as the depletion of enthusiasm that comes as a result of roadblocks, obstacles, constraints, and the addition of rules (Hockey, 2013). It can also be viewed as a marked diminution of the spiritual, emotional, and attitudinal aspect of an individual’s contributions, skills, and output. One of the most commonly assessed psychological obstacles is the stressors. Pilots are exposed to many occupational stressors that might implicate their psychological well-being. Examples of stressors include circadian disruptions, long duty days, and schedule changes amongst others. Psychologically, stress is defined as a situation where an individual experiences psychological and emotional reactions that come when an individual is confronted with demands that are way above their coping resources (Hockey, 2013).
Although tiredness is largely a physical aspect, it markedly affects the psychology of an individual. Some of the common aspects of tiredness include mental exhaustion and a systematic lack of motivation. Research conducted showed that a tired person in most cases fails to realize the extent of their impairment. Due to its psychological impact, some of the common treatments of fatigue such as motivation, coffee, and experience do not result in any significant solution. Some of the most common psychological impacts that fatigue can have on a pilot include sleepiness, apathy, a feeling of isolation, and annoyance amongst others. Research has shown that excessive mental stimulation caused by the tight scheduling of a pilot might have similar effects the exhaustion caused by manual labor. In the end, both result in physical and psychological breakdowns that prevent an individual from functioning properly. Hockey (2013) asserted that mental fatigue typically manifests as a diminished efficiency of cognitive workload. It is in this regard that many pilots are at an increased risk of engaging in accidents. Furthermore, fatigue implicates the neural mechanism of an individual thereby resulting in an impaired cognitive performance.
Other than a reduced cognitive function, fatigue directly implicates an individual’s ability to carry out their tasks. Studies have shown that fatigue causes a gross breakdown in an individual’s ability to carry out roles that require concentration, mental dexterity, and higher-order intellectual processing. Hartzler (2014) noted that psychological studies have also revealed that fatigue can occur acutely immediately after a mental or physical activity. Also, it can occur gradually spanning from several days to weeks. The most common causes of psychological fatigue for pilots include lack of sufficient sleep or due to their ever-ongoing job that has a toll on their mental and physical demands. After understanding the psychology of fatigue, it becomes easier to figure out what can be done in fighting this problem that has become so profound in the aviation field.
It remains valuable to appreciate that research has shown that fatigue in the aviation industry accounts for about 20% to 30% of accidents and up to 70% of fatal accidents occurring in commercial aviation (Caldwell, & Caldwell, 2017). Fatigue immensely affects pilots, procurement officers, hostesses, and technicians amongst others. Preventing fatigue depends on altering lifestyles and adopting healthy practices. In assessing these strategies, however, it is important to note that commercial pilots must find ways to contend with the busy schedule, circadian rhythm disruption, and shift work amongst other tiresome duties. General aviation pilots must, therefore, make efforts to change their lifestyle and mitigate factors that might result in fatigue.
Researchers have noted that obtaining adequate sleep is one of the primary ways of resolving fatigue amongst pilots. Due to their busy schedules that can go up to days, pilots require sleep as a way of recuperating and resting. Insufficient sleep, on the other hand, has major implications for the body especially with regards to physical and psychological issues. Therefore, as a standard rule, pilots and other aviation professionals prone to fatigue should have a minimum of 8 hours sleep. Additionally, there are lifestyle recommendations that every aviation professional must take into keen consideration. Alcohol or caffeine should strictly be consumed 3-4 hours before one goes to sleep (Caldwell, & Caldwell, 2017). Such a strategy reduces the likelihood that the body or the brain will experience unwarranted downtimes. Exercise, especially before bedtime, would help in reducing the probability of fatigue. Although working out releases toxins that can cause fatigue, it should not be done close to bedtime.
Other than changing lifestyle, pilots must remain cognizant of risky behaviors that could ultimately lead to fatigue. First, they should stay mindful of the adverse side-effects of specific medications that might cause impairment in alertness or drowsiness. Pilots should ensure that they consult with physicians widely to treat any condition that causes sleeping problems. The sleeping environment should be comfortable enough to rehabilitate the body. Before a flight, pilots must acquire plenty of rests, and in case they do not have a good sleep, they should postpone it if possible. Aviation professionals must also shift their attention to less significant practices that are usually abandoned but have immense importance (Hartzler, 2014). Examples include plenty of water, shedding extra weight, and preventing a jet lag. Although caffeine is a better option for enhancing alertness, pilots should be careful to avoid adverse effects that might come with addiction.
References
Caldwell, J. A., & Caldwell, J. L. (2017). Fatigue and Aviation. In Aeromedical Psychology (pp. 235-258). CRC Press.
Hartzler, B. M. (2014). Fatigue on the flight deck: the consequences of sleep loss and the benefits of napping. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 62, 309-318.
Hockey, R. (2013). The psychology of fatigue: Work, effort and control. Cambridge University Press.
