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Old 17th May 2009 | 03:32
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Dan Winterland
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Joined: Jun 2001
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From: Blighty
It's interesting that when a pilot shows up to work and is found with alcohol in his/her blood, the industry, regulators, press and public go to town and pillory the individual. But fatigue is as dangerous, far more common and more insidious because although the effects are similar, the individual knows when they have had a drink but often doesn't know they are fatigued until they start making mistakes.

But the regulators and companies are quite happy - indeed encourage pilots to fly when fatigued. Personally, I think I would be more on the ball having had a beer than flying with chronic and acute fatigue. How easy is it to be on top of your game when you've been awake for 22 hours. It's usually OK if everything is going well as modern aircraft tend to protect you. But if anything goes wrong, you are very likely to become a statistic - as the Coglan pilots did.
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