Science-based rules

Pilot fatigue is a threat to flight safety and the EU is in the process of drafting new EU-wide fatigue rules. This provides a unique opportunity:  Use this legislative process to produce safe rules to the benefit of Europe’s travelling public.

Rules that are based on scientific evidence that shows where to put the limits to ensure pilots are sufficiently alert to fly safely. EASA knows what science recommends. But its latest proposal stops half-way. This must change. EASA must go further. Europe needs science-based rules now!

For a long time, fatigue and its impact on transport safety has been subject to research. A wide body of scientific evidence is available identifying pilot fatigue as a risk factor in flight operations, and showing how long pilots can fly safely before becoming too tired.

Many countries in Europe – such as the United Kingdom, Spain and others – have based their national fatigue rules on science

.And yet, this has not become a competitive disadvantage to them. Quite the contrary: their airlines are among the most competitive in Europe. And a SAFE operation is THE precondition for being competitive.

EASA’s own medical and scientific evaluation (2009) shows where the flight time limits should be and how long a human body needs to rest in order to ensure it performs again at the required levels of alertness.

Three further scientific assessments carried out in 2011 confirm this and give guidance on where to set the limits safely. In some cases, this might increase costs for the airlines, but in most it won’t because many airlines apply company-specific arrangements which provide stricter rules than what EASA proposes today.

Therefore:  Use the science and make Europe a leader in aviation safety. This is what Europe’s passengers deserve:  legislation that protects THEM – rather than the airlines’ commercial interest.

For this, the EU Institutions – and EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas – need to take leadership. They must make passenger safety their Number One Priority. Europe needs science-based rules now!