Flight time limitations (FTLs) are less useful in controlling fatigue during late night operations than other fatigue-management methods, especially the maximization of preflight sleep, according to a study by sleep researchers in the Netherlands.1
The researchers from the NRL-Netherlands Aerospace Centre focused on 392 crewmembers from 24 airlines over a two-week period, reviewing their flight duty periods (FDPs), the amount of sleep they received and the fatigue scores that they recorded. Of the 392 participants, 265 were airline pilots and 127 were cabin crewmembers.
“[T]he potential of improving aircrew fatigue mitigation through adjustments of the current EU [European Union] FTL rules seems rather limited as long as disruptive FDPs are used,” said the report, published in the August issue of Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance. “Instead, improvements in sleep opportunities prior to night FDPs and on-duty fatigue mitigation strategies are more promi…
