I would assume that QANTAS and CASA refused to comment due to Q having a exemption from the CAO48 requirements?
Fatigued pilots 'putting passengers at risk'
One in seven Australian airline pilots battle fatigue when landing their aircraft, putting passengers and crew at risk, a new report claims.
The report, obtained by Nine News, details the extent of the problem of pilot fatigue and makes 35 recommendations to improve air safety.
Researchers at the University of South Australia analysed the sleeping patterns of 450 Qantas pilots and found that 14 percent reported being "extremely tired" when performing the vital task of landing their planes safely.
The researchers at the university's centre for sleep research based their findings on more than 10,000 days of flight duty, using flight simulators, sleep labs and pilots' self-reporting.
The report, completed in September last year, found that pilots landing their planes at the end of international long-haul flights had just 5.6 hours of sleep on average in the previous 24-hour period.
Pilots landing their aircraft after domestic short-haul flights had just 6.4 hours of sleep over the previous 24 hours on average.
Fatigue among some flight crews using the simulator test was linked to higher error rates.
"You can't just rest on your laurels when you're dealing with people's lives," Queensland federal MP Paul Neville, who authored a parliamentary report into air safety in 2000, said.
The sleep research centre prepared its report for Qantas, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and the Australian and International Pilots Association.
Its recommendations treat fatigue as seriously as drug and alcohol testing.
The centre proposes that pilots disclose their amount of sleep before duty and that Qantas collects data on fatigue levels among flight crews.
The report also urges better training and education for flight staff.
Qantas and CASA refused to comment on the document.
"Let's looks at the case on the Hudson River just last week," said Mr Neville, a member of The Nationals Party, referring to the incident in New York last week when a commercial airline pilot landed his plane into the icy Hudson after both engines malfunctioned.
"Let's say he was at the end of his tether with fatigue. Might we have achieved the same result? That's the problem we're looking at."