Aviation and Human Factors: Dangers of Fatigue in Aviation - SCA1117

This essay examines the critical issue of pilot fatigue within the aviation industry, focusing on its definition, causes, and the significant dangers it poses. The essay defines fatigue as a state of reduced mental or physical performance, often resulting from sleep loss, workload, or circadian disruption. It explores various factors contributing to fatigue, including sleep disorders, jet lag, emotional stress, and physical exertion. The essay highlights the dangers of fatigue, such as slower response times, impaired decision-making, and increased risk tolerance, which can lead to procedural errors and accidents. Real-world examples, such as the Colgan Air Crash, are used to illustrate the catastrophic consequences of pilot fatigue. Furthermore, the essay discusses the importance of fatigue risk management systems and regulatory changes, like those implemented by CASA in Australia, to mitigate the risks and ensure aviation safety. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for proactive measures to address fatigue and protect both flight crew and passengers.

Aviation and Human Factors
With special reference to Dangers of fatigue in Aviation
Student Details
9/5/2019

HUMAN FACTORS IN AVIATION
Aviation and Fatigue Dangers
Fatigue is a word used to define a general sense of fatigue as well as energy shortage.
It is not just the feeling of sleepy as well as drowsy, however, sometimes a person is not
motivated and do not have any energy when they are tired. This essay deals with the risks
associated with fatigue that an aircraft pilot may experience or may relate to employees in the
aviation sector (Eduardo Salas, Scott I. Tannenbaum, & Kurt Kraiger, 2012). According to
ICAO (The International Civil Aviation Organization) fatigue is considered to be a
psychological state in which the mental or physical performance get reduced, which results in
loss of sleep or extended wakefulness, workload or circadian phase.
People often define fatigue using a range of terms including tiredness, exhaustion,
discomfort, absence of energy, and run-down feeling (Carl-Ulrik Schierup, Ronaldo Munck,
& Branka Likic-Brboric, 2015). Most Australians argue to have tiredness that is intense
enough to conflict with their regular life. An approximately 20% to 60% of the fatigue was a
casual explanation, while emotional or psychological causes accounted for the other 40% to
80% of exhaustion cases. Regrettably, when people experience intense mental or physical
activity then this tends to cause a state of exhaustion among them (Jamie A.Gruman & Alan
M.Saks, 2011). If the same situation occurs in a plan's cabin where the pilot feels fatigued, it
can result in drastic outcomes. It is directly linked to the passengers’ comfort, which is
travelling in the aircraft.
There are many prospective causes of fatigue in aviation industry. Most of the
illnesses known to humankind often list symptoms connected with exhaustion or fatigue.
Tiredness can happen as a normal reaction to physical and psychological exertion in ordinary
healthy people (Elaine Cohen, 2010). The factors behind the development of fatigue
throughout the aviation sector can be categorized as the related symptoms of several wide
categories of diseases, lifestyle issues or contextual problems. The triggers of exhaustion in
an aviation sector can be largely linked to variables such as absence of quality sleep or sleep
disorders, interruption of body clock, mental and emotional pressure (including family issues,
anxiety, or ride stress control), physical exertion including heavy practice or bad health,
dehydration or bad diet (Hartzler, 2014). Fatigue contributes to a decrease in one’s capacity
to perform duties. Many studies have shown important impairment in the capacity of a person
to perform duties requiring manual consent, awareness, and mental processing of higher-
1

HUMAN FACTORS IN AVIATION
order (Herman Aguinis, Ryan K.Gottfredson, & HarryJoo, 2012). Tiredness can occur
acutely, i.e. after some important physical or mental activity in a comparatively short time.
As well as, over several days or even weeks, it may happen gradually (John Caldwell & J.
Lynn Caldwell, 2016). This scenario typically happens with someone that does not get
enough sleep across an extended period or someone with inadequate rest engaged in
continuing physical or mental operation.
Fatigue is a slight inconvenience for the average person, which can be resolved with a
break or stopping any activity that brought this on. There have been typically no important
effects (Larry F. Moore & P. Devereaux Jennings, 2017). However, if that individual is
engaged in safety-related operations such as operating a vehicle, learning to fly an aircraft,
conducting surgery, or operating a nuclear reactor, the effects of fatigue can be catastrophic
(Alan F. Stokes & Kirsten Kite, 2017). Tiredness is a life aspect that is expected and
omnipresent. Employees operating in an aviation sector may be faced with a situation in
which they experience enhanced discomfort with decreased job ability, decreased
performance effectiveness, energy loss or ability to react to stimuli, and are generally
accompanied by a sensation of tiredness and fatigue. Due to this fatigue conditions, there are
many dangers that can be encountered by the aircraft pilot as well as the passengers in it.
The primary dangers connected with fatigue or such circumstances encountered by a
pilot of the aircraft may pose the danger of dizziness, chest pain, breathlessness, swelling
(e.g. rectal bleeding or vomiting blood), severe pelvic, abdominal or back pain, high fever,
irregular or rapid heartbeat, etc. It is recommended that if an individual experience any of the
above-mentioned fatigue hazards they should instantly go to the Emergency service of a
hospital. However, in the aircraft when the pilot faces these types of situation then urgent
lending or some urgent medical treatments must be given to that pilot after taking charge of
aircraft from him or her in order to avoid any dangers (Commission, 2016). Various risks a
pilot may face can be a slower response, difficulty focusing on assignments leading to
procedural errors, attention delays, failure to anticipate incidents, greater risk tolerance,
forgetfulness, and decreased decision-making capacity (OsnatBouskila-Yam & Avraham
N.Kluger, 2011). Quality is most impacted when prolonged wakefulness and circadian
influences are combined. There is indeed a fatigue disorder, which is encountered by many
pilots that is Jet leg (Bruce A. Desmarais & Skyler J. Cranmer, 2011). Jet lag is the situation
where the pilots get so tired during most of the flight, the researchers wrote, and that their
2

HUMAN FACTORS IN AVIATION
levels of tiredness would have an impact on their results. Many pilots admit to taking the
popular prescription-sleeping tablet, to adjust to a fresh time zone (Emily A. Spieler & John
F. Burton, 2012).
Many variables pose a high danger to an aircraft's crew and passengers; most common
among them is a considerable increase in the pilot errors (Ashutosh Muduli, 2015). To
generate a mixture of sleep deprivation, natural sleep impacts, and' time-on-task ' fatigue,
these variables can happen together by restricting the number of hours pilots can fly over
variable long zones. It has been projected, according to specialists, that 4-7 percent of
incidents, as well as crashes in aviation, can be attributed to tired pilots. In air carrier crashes,
fatigue has also been correlated with 250 deaths over the past 16 years. One research by the
United States Air Forces discovered important discrepancies as to how fatigue influences
various people (Zidan, 2011).On such a strong-fidelity flight simulator, it monitored the
efficiency of 117 pilots of Australia. The participants were deprived of sleep for 38 hrs. The
behavioural differences between people varied by 50 percent after basis correction and found
that the impact of fatigue on efficiency varied drastically between pilots (Reis, 2013).
Evidence demonstrates that fatigue is a contributory factor in many Australian
aviation crashes (Yong-Soon Kim & Se-Won Kang, 2012). Over the past ten years, the
Australian Transport Security Bureau (ATSB) has recognized about 65 incidents as well as
accidents under which fatigue has been recognized as a cause. On a Air Canada Flight 16
passengers were injured due to the pilot fatigue teh co pilot woke up without knowing taht the
plan was going to collide with other plan hence he took it into dive and all passengers were
sprawling in the cabin (Moore, 2012). The most drastic and popular crash or disaster-related
to the aviation industry in Australia is named as Colgan Air Crash. The Colgan Air Flight
3407 on 12th February 2009 was scheduled from Newark to Buffalo New York got crashed
into a house which was in Clarence Centre of New York. This air crash killed around 50
individuals. The higher officials analyzed the crash and they detected that the crash happened
because of the carelessness of pilot as the pilot inappropriately responded to various stall
warnings. After the claims made by the pilot, it can be considered that the accident is a
painful reminder of the fatigue risks. As per the U.S. National Transport Safety Board
(NTSB), before 24 hours until the accident, the captain and the first officer had very little
time for appropriate rest (Moore, 2012). Until their change, they have both in-charges for
lengthy distances by air, Florida's Captain, as well as Seattle's first officer onto the west coast
3

HUMAN FACTORS IN AVIATION
of the United States. Due to this, the NTSB discovered that the efficiency of the pilots was
probably impaired due to fatigue, and pilot fatigue risks were not proactively addressed by
the airline. Due to this as well as many other aviation accidents related to fatigue the CASA a
regulatory body of Australia attempted to reform the laws on tiredness leadership in
Australia. According to the revised laws, one must now confirm to the official rulebook if
they are the current operator or holder of Part 141 certificates. Existing providers must
provide CASA with an enhanced operation handbook until 1 May 2017 for the transfer to the
new regulations and until 30 October 2016 (Ta-ChungWang & Lu-HanChuang, 2014).
It can be concluded from the above lines that when the fatigue level of pilots or
individuals becomes chronic, severe or prolonged exhaustion, normal fatigue can start to
become unusual. ICAO has described a Fatigue Risk Management Structure (FRMS) as a
data-driven means of continually tracking and sustaining fatigue-related safety hazards, based
on science values and understanding, as well as operational experience aimed at ensuring
appropriate performance of appropriate pilots or other officials of the aviation industry.
4

HUMAN FACTORS IN AVIATION
Bibliography
Alan F. Stokes, & Kirsten Kite. (2017). Flight Stress: Stress, Fatigue and Performance in
Aviation (1st Edition ed.). London: Routledge.
Ashutosh Muduli. (2015). High performance work system, HRD climate and organisational
performance: an empirical study. European journal of Training and development , 39
(3), 239-257.
Bruce A. Desmarais, & Skyler J. Cranmer. (2011). Inferential Network Analysis with
Exponential Random Graph Models. Political Analysis , 66-86.
Carl-Ulrik Schierup, Ronaldo Munck, & Branka Likic-Brboric. (2015). Migration, Precarity,
and Global Governance: Challenges and Opportunities for Labour. OUP Oxford.
Commission, P. (2016). Digital Disruption: What do governments need to do? Austrilian
Governemnt: Productivity Commision , pp. 1-246.
Eduardo Salas, Scott I. Tannenbaum, & Kurt Kraiger. (2012). The Science of Training and
Development in Organizations: What Matters in Practice. Psychological Science in
the Public Interest , 13 (2), 74-101.
Elaine Cohen. (2010). Employee training and development. In CSR for HR (1st Edition ed., p.
10). London: Routledge.
Emily A. Spieler, & John F. Burton. (2012). The lack of correspondence between work‐
related disability and receipt of workers' compensation benefits. American Journal of
Industrial Medicine , 55 (6), 487-505.
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.
Herman Aguinis, Ryan K.Gottfredson, & HarryJoo. (2012). Using performance management
to win the talent war. Business Horizons , 55 (6), 609-616.
Jamie A.Gruman, & Alan M.Saks. (2011). Performance management and employee
engagement. Human Resource Management Review , 21 (2), 123-136.
5

HUMAN FACTORS IN AVIATION
John Caldwell, & J. Lynn Caldwell. (2016). Fatigue in Aviation A Guide to Staying Awake at
the Stick (2nd Edition ed.). London: Routledge.
Larry F. Moore, & P. Devereaux Jennings. (2017). Human Resource Management on the
Pacific Rim: Institutions, Practices, and Attitudes. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co
KG.
Moore, K. (2012). Pilot fatigue 'one of the biggest threats to air safety'. Retrieved Sept 5,
2019, from BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-19837178
OsnatBouskila-Yam, & Avraham N.Kluger. (2011). Strength-based performance appraisal
and goal setting. Human Resource Management Review , 21 (2), 137-147.
Reis, C. M. (2013). Prevalence of fatigue in a group of airline pilots. Aviation, space, and
environmental medicine , 84 (8), 828-833.
Ta-ChungWang, & Lu-HanChuang. (2014). Psychological and physiological fatigue
variation and fatigue factors in aircraft line maintenance crews. International Journal
of Industrial Ergonomics , 44 (1), 107-113.
Yong-Soon Kim, & Se-Won Kang. (2012). Moral sensitivity relating to the application of the
code of ethics. Nursing Ethics , 20 (4), 470-478.
Zidan, D. (2011). Technology Based E-Management System. Jordan International Energy
Conference , pp. 1-6.
6