Edwardh1: as for regulatory factors, you might check into the well-known fact that our FAA regulators were aware of a problem with anti-icing certification criteria. Some of the administrators knew about serious control problems during icing conditions, on some ATR-42 turboprops in Europe. They were silent about their awareness, but after a plane rolled over in icing conditions, having suffered from "aileron-snatch" and a load of people died, the truth came out. They then spent a lot of money (note, after a plane crashed), investigated the known problem and required ATRs to have redesigned anti-icing boots on the wing leading edges.
After a jet landed and lots of people died in Little Rock, AR a few years ago, our friends with the FAA decided that it was time to require pilots on continuous standby duty (up to six days or so) to have a defined eight-hour rest period in each 24, so that their company schedulers can not call them any hour of the day or night. This only defines a rest period-the probability of actual quality sleep is assumed by the regulators. Pilots had no idea if they should sleep at night or in the day, being prepared to throw a suitcase on very short notice into the car trunk/boot/Kofferraum. Get it? How does this affect your safety performance if you guess wrong on WHEN to sleep, and are on duty for 12-18 hours or more?
A foreign guy who flew Connie Kalitta's Learjets told me that when notified, they were required to be at the plane in about 30 minutes. Sometimes their official duty period would last 16 hours or more, but because they must reposition planes with no 'revenue payload', they could go up to 24-30 hours with only short naps in the c@ckp1t/flightdeck, to get by. No autopilot or automation, either. Lekker slapen Mijnheer/Tot ziens-
