Airbubba: True, but the US public is totally unaware of the first accident which motivated the NTSB to stand up to the FAA and declare fatigue as the primary cause, based on what I've read.
It was the all-night duty period following little daytime rest for a Connie Kalitta DC-8 freighter's three-member crew (or a subsidiary?) whose plane cartwheeled in a nightmarish ending after the reportedly tricky close turn in to final approach at NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Is it strange, that a freighter accident resulted in the the description of fatigue as the primary cause? Or easier, because all parties knew that the public has no interest in freight flying? In Little Rock, had it been a freighter aircraft, crews on multiple standby duty periods would STILL have NO pre-designated 8-hour period, in each consecutive 24-hour block, when their employer can not expect the telephone to be answered.
"Lemme see, should I take a long nap in the afternoon or wait until night...?".
The tombstone agency, our FAA, needs either bloody, burned or smashed bodies (but not crewmembers!- only paying/revenue passengers) before it will help crews begin to work under more reasonable regulations, as always. Crewmembers are merely looked upon as unwashed, illegal aliens lurking in seedy locales-machines like "the Terminator", who need no real rest.
