Cargo Industry Exempt from Flight/Duty Changes

After the Colgan Air accident, new flight regulations came about partially due to the lobbying of family members of the victims on board. The major area of change is dealing with fatigue. For flight and duty requirements, the new rule incorporates the time of day the pilot has their first flight, the number of scheduled legs and the number of time zones they cross, whereas the old rule had different rest requirements based on the type of flight and did not even recognize those factors. There is an FAA flight time limit of 8 or 9 hours depending on the start time of the duty period and now, instead of the minimum 8 hour rest period, it is 10 hour minimum rest period with an opportunity for 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Also, it is required that pilots have a minimum of 30 consecutive hours duty free on a weekly basis, which is a 25 percent increase of the old rule. Another good thing to come out of this is pilot affirmation of fitness for duty. If a pilot states that they are feeling fatigued or unfit to fly, the airline must remove that pilot immediately. (Duquette, 2011)

Cargo pilots were originally included when the new regulations were proposed, but the White House had the agency remove them. So the cargo carriers still operate under the old rules of 250 hours and a commercial license. James Fraser, the FAA’s chief air surgeon stated that “the aviation professionals at the FAA understand that there is no difference between pilots who fly cargo and pilots who carry passengers, other than the fact that cargo carriers' management complained that increased rest for pilots would cost too much.” (Hall, Goelz, 2014) So I firmly believe that they were excluded because of financial reasons. I think that they should be included in the new rules because those pilots have the same susceptibility to fatigue as passenger pilots. In 2013 a UPS cargo plane crashed in Birmingham, AL, killing 2 crew members and the NTSB blamed fatigue for the crash. The cockpit voice recorder got them discussing how tired they were before they took off.

The impact on my career by extending these regulations to the cargo carriers would really just be making the airspace safer. The less fatigued pilots we have out there, the better. I honestly think it is unfair to not include them because in a way it’s like saying they matter less because they can go out and fly when they are not fit to fly.

Hall, J., & Goelz, P. (2014, September 11). Cargo pilot hours should be regulated, too: Column. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/09/11/cargo-pilot-airline-safety-fatigue-regulations-commercial-column/15474061/

Duquette, A. (2011, December 21). Press Release – FAA Issues Final Rule on Pilot Fatigue. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=13272