Majority of Indian pilots doze off in cockpits due to fatigue, survey claims

"My mind clicks on and off..I try letting one eyelid close at a time while I prop the other open with my will. My whole body argues dully that nothing, nothing life can attain, is quite so desirable as sleep. My mind is losing resolution and control."

This description by Charles Lindbergh of a historic solo transoceanic flight of 33.5H in 1927 illustrates the destructive effects of fatigue in aviation.

A new survey has found that a majority of pilots working in Indian airline companies have been suffering from “daytime sleepiness” which is generally triggered by extreme fatigue. Among the 542 pilots who took part in the survey, 66 per cent said that they have dozed off during their shift hours in the cockpit.

The survey was conducted by the non-profit organisation Safety Matters Foundation and it included “Indian pilots flying with regional, domestic, domestic with destinations within four hours flying”.

“Based on their responses, it was found that about 54% of the pilots suffer from severe excessive daytime sleepiness while 41% suffer from moderate daytime sleepiness,” the survey explained.

Fatigue is one of the main reasons attributed to airplane accidents and the study reaffirmed the fact that pilots are not coping well with the pressure that comes with their jobs. With companies looking to work with less than adequate workforces, timings have gone up for most pilots.

According to the survey, pilots earlier had to fly 30 hours a week but now, they can fly back-to-back once every week. That has resulted in added stress on the workforce resulting in more fatigue.

‘Corporate support for implementing and maintaining a safety culture needs to be enhanced. There is a general agreement that adequate manpower and resources are not put into safety. The DGCA has not implemented Fatigue risk management systems (FRMS) mandatorily and as such, no rules have been drafted to manage fatigue under FRMS. The prevailing rules are prescriptive and scientific principle on which DGCA has based the regulations for flight and the duty time remain debatable,’ said Captain Amit Singh, founder, Safety Matters Foundation.

The survey results were concerning. Here are the key points:

• 66% of pilots admitted to dozing off in the cockpit without alerting their fellow crew members
• 54.2% of the pilots suffer from severe excessive daytime sleepiness
• 74% of the pilots attributed a series of morning departures as the leading cause of fatigue
• 31% admit to having a close call while flying which could have led to an incident attributable to fatigue

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