This was posted in the Flight Deck Forums above (four pages and growing), maybe some our friends over in the "sand box" can comment on thier rostering which looks like a real safety issue.
Emirates Fatigue. FAA / CAA / CASA etc, are you reading this?
MODS: Please don't move this.
FATIGUE is a very real and serious problem being faced by Pilots & Cabin Crew at Emirates. Without representation and with fear of punitive action, crews are pawns in the hands of a management structure who see FTLs as targets, not LIMITS.
The CRS bidding system with all it's safeguards is a JOKE. In order to FORCE the system to run with insufficient numbers of crew, alterations have been made and safety boundaries have been rendered inoperative. Callous roster builders are required to aggressively make manual pre-publication roster insertions in order to keep the schedule running.
FTL annexes extending duty periods are not used as intended, but are creatively adapted to multi-sector through-the-night flights in order to avoid layovers and cut costs. These are a daily norm on a number of flights. Day/night and West/East duty combos are blended without thought or consideration of fatigue and augmenting hours are "factored" in order to reduce 28 day and 365 day running totals. The words "flight" and "pairing" are interchanged when convenient to avoid necessary time off after long/ultra-long haul operations.
Weekly, ASR after ASR is filed without any noticeable management action. The paper trail is long, but as long as profits are good and there are 2 butts in the forward-most seats keeping the plane is in the air, no problem exists. Apparently.
BEWARE: There are a bunch of EK zombies flying heavy machinery into an airport near YOU!
Please follow link below or search Middle East forum/fatigue:
EK Cabin Crew reporting for duty even thou unfit to fly
Last edited by a330pilotcanada; 1st December 2010 at 11:13.
Reason: Clarity