For about 15 years, Air New Zealand periodically assessed pilots and flight attendants during flight operations and attempted to scientifically identify links between measured levels of fatigue and safety indicators. Today, fatigue risk management systems (FRMSs) “mirror the pillars of safety management systems,” says David Powell, aviation medicine specialist for the airline. Nevertheless, airlines are finding that discussing an FRMS is easy while actually implementing all the elements is “particularly hard to do,” he told Flight Safety Foundation’s 64th annual International Air Safety Seminar (IASS) in Singapore in November.
A few years ago, a company study focused on two-crew flights for the Christchurch, New Zealand–Brisbane, Australia, city pair, on which the same pilots departed from Christchurch between 2100 and 2200 local time and arrived back at Christchurch at about 0700 the following day. “It is the sort of duty done around the world,” Powell said.
“Chang…
