Framer. Agreed. There are so many unreported incidents, everyday, that were mistakes caused by triedness = loss of concentration. No serious event ensuded and so they are never heard of. A smoking hole will take a long time to be proved to have been caused by fatigue, if ever. The best we might get is "it could have been a contributing factor". It will never be offfered as primary. The forces at work to sweep tiredness under trhe carpet are enormous. I say again, FTL's have been extended, or nort reduced, to match the extended performance of the a/c and keep down costs. Some CAA's have said that increased automation will compensate for this. (In 1990's, Italian rules said that the autopilot was a 3rd crew member. Thus upto 17hrs was allowed with an autopilot a/c. Add a 3rd pilot and the duty time went to 24 hrs. However, at that time no a/c could fly that .long and would have to land a refuel disrupting any rest-time. Madness.) But the attitude prevails. With so many back up systems the pilots will not have to be wide awake hot-shots to save the day. There is lies the error in thinking. Many serviceable a/c are crashed by un-serviceable crew. Tiredness also brings about irritability and that can cause rushing in normal circumstances, especially when late and everything has been working against you. Poor judgement and a smoking hole, or perhaps a more minor unreported incident.
However, fully servicedable well trained crew can save an unserviceable a/c. Things do go wrong, and is that not one main reason why we are there; to be proactive, preventative and an insurance policy. Read the thread on handling skills. Not all airports are Cat 3 equiped to take the strain at the end of a long period of working days/nights. Sometimes the last few moments have to be hand flown. Lousy weather, low class nav aids etc, short rwy's etc. Not a good recipe, but hey it's legal.
Paqs safety should not be confused with macho long hours work. Quite the opposite. Who would get on board an a/c knowing the crew had FTL's f 24 hrs? This is what pax do in blind faith. It is legal in their country, so it must be OK. But I sure as hell like to know who I'm flying with and a little of their background. Being 'legal' is not always a safe-guard. It's legal to drive at 70mph on a motorway. To do so in rain when tried at 04.00 is legal, but is it a good idea?
The battle is triedness v cost. The financial muscle is greater than the social argument from crews. Look what happened about the radiation argument, the DVT argument, the current toxic fumes argument. There is a very lumpy carpet at the various CAA's and government's transport's departments. Fatigue has been talked about for over 30 years and the square root of f'all has been done about it. Don't hold your breath, but don't give it up either. Simple challenge to the medices, CAA bods and politicians; go fly a weeks roster on the jump seat and then we may listen to your opinions.