Originally Posted by
Sunfish
Rat5, of course you are perfectly correct. That is my point.
But before an accident occurs the argument willl be made that the rosters are legal under the regulations and it is therefore assumed that those that drafted the regulations knew what they were doing so inter alia - the rosters are safe.
You cannot challenge them without proving scientifically that the research behind them was flawed - and that means destroying the credibility of whoever drafted the regs, not a pleasant or easy thing to do when civil service careers are involved.
Of course if an incident occurs, and fatigue is discovered to be the proximate cause, the employer will then blame the pilot and piously wonder why they didn't call in sick if they were so tired. The trouble there of course is the "double bind" problem (discussed elsewhere or google it yourself) if the employer has an internal corporate culture that discourages taking sick time.
The depressing thing is that it will require a series of incidents before anyone can prove statistically and scientifically that there is a fatigue problem. Only then can the regulations be changed after suitable regulatory backside covering has taken place.
But can i ask a question which seems stupid to me... Why haven't they had a serious accident yet? Just been lucky? Although i dont think luck comes into it when your flying a 73-8.
So how come they havent had a serious accident yet? Anyone?