USA Today: Airlines Need to Step Up Safety Training for Employees
Pilots, air traffic controllers and others are making fatigue-related errors on the job.
By Garry Kranz Comments 0 | Recommend 0
Asleep at the Wheel: Here’s something to think about as you buckle up for that
next business flight. According to an article in USA Today, worker fatigue in
the airline industry poses a continual safety problem. The article reports that
hundreds of airline industry workers—from
pilots to mechanics and air traffic controllers—have committed mistakes on the
job as a result of fatigue. That includes at least six reported cases of airline
pilots who dozed off during flights. Both a pilot and co-pilot reportedly nodded
off as their plane was making its descent to land at an airport near Washington.
Although the reported incidents represent a fraction of the more than 40 million
airline flights covered during the period, the article notes that federal
National Transportation Safety Board has linked “pilot fatigue to 10 commercial
aviation accidents” since 1993, killing 260 people. The article is based on an
analysis of federal airline safety records dating to 2003 and that was compiled
by NASA.
Workforce Management contributing editor Garry Kranz is based in Richmond, Virginia. E-mail editors@workforce.com to comment.
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