Pilots falling asleep BEFORE they report.
Over the last few years, as house prices have shot up in the SE, I'm flying with co-pilots that are living further and further from LHR. It is not unusual these days to fly with a guy who has just driven in from Wales, Devon, Manchester or even Newcastle. We also have lots of commuters (one co-pilot even commutes from Australia and thats on SH, many many more on LH) from Spain, France Scotland etc.
BA seems to turn a blind eye to these practises and even helps promote commuting by supplying buses to and from the terminals to the Compass Centre. I have every sympathy with guys trying to find somewhere to live that offers the best quality of life BUT I feel that you are not fully rested if you have just done a 3hr car journey or a spent 6 hrs traveling from France before you report for duty. The last guy I flew with had just driven in from Sheffield, a 3 hour plus car journey. This is just not on especially with some of the long duty days we have. Is this the same in other airlines? Is there not any legislation that restricts the distance you can drive before you go to work? Or restricts the distance you can travel as a pax before you operate? It is not uncommon to see guys get off overnight flights from the states to then do a 10:30 report to operate back out again. Apart from being extremely tiring do the pax not have a right to expect a pilot to turn up to work fully rested. Maybe it's time for the CAA took a long hard look at the some of the ditances pilots are living from their regular places of work.