PILOTS on long-haul flights stay more alert if they are allowed to take a
break for a nap, says a study from NASA. Without breaks, pilots can sometimes
fall asleep in the cockpit.
NASA鈥檚 findings may help to sway the US Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) in its deliberations on whether to allow crew members to take turns
napping on long flights.
No one knows how often pilots fall asleep at the controls. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think
it鈥檚 a frequent occurrence. But it happens,鈥� says Bob Flocke, a spokesman for
the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).
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NASA鈥檚 researchers spent more than 800 hours studying the crews of Boeing
747s on flights across the Pacific. Of the 21 pilots assigned to the flights,
12 were instructed to take an in-flight nap of 40 minutes. The other nine took
no naps, at least not officially.
The pilots who were allowed naps stayed more alert on duty than those who
did not have a sleep break. The resting pilots also scored higher on a battery
of physiological, behavioural and performance tests.
Not all the pilots in the 鈥渟leepless鈥� group stayed awake when they were
supposed to. Five of the nine pilots in this group fell asleep at the
controls, even though they knew they were being monitored by the researchers.
One nodded off twice. Two of the naps lasted longer than 10 minutes.
The pilots who were entitled to take naps performed more consistently
during the night and the day, says Mark Rosekind, leader of the team at NASA鈥檚
Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, which conducted the study.
Flying several consecutive journeys did not seem to tire them as much as it
did the pilots in the second group.
Last year, an advisory committee to the FAA proposed the introduction of a
federal regulation that would allow naps on planes with a three-member crew,
such as the Boeing 747. Swissair already allows some napping by its flight
crews.
But the proposal ran into stiff opposition from the pilots鈥� unions, which
argue that if planes carried an extra pilot, all members of the flight crew
would be able to take a break. Flights longer than 12 hours already carry an
extra crew member and airlines are required to provide a place for pilots to
sleep.
The unions agree that the FAA should not allow napping on flights that only
have two pilots in the cockpit. Most new plane models have a crew of two
rather than the three in the Jumbos of the NASA study.
鈥淲ith one of those people asleep, you鈥檙e in a single pilot operation,鈥� says
Michael Cronin of the Allied Pilots Association. He warns that one pilot might
not be able to handle an emergency alone, and a second pilot roused from sleep
might be too groggy to be much help. 鈥淚t gives us the heebie-jeebies,鈥� he
says.