PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - LHR Inebriated DL Pilot Sentenced to Six Months
Old 10th Feb 2011, 14:03
  #131 (permalink)  
AvMed.IN
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: India
Posts: 91
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Maat,
you have inquired about the incidents or accidents due to alcohol and fatigue.
Off hand, it may be difficult to dig out such statistics, but I may provide you with an abstract from a study on alcohol violations by airline pilots. As per this study, "During the study period, newspapers reported on a total of 13 incidents of alcohol violations involving 17 pilots. All but two of the incidents occurred during January 2002 through June 2006. The majority (85%) of the incidents were first identified by airport personnel, such as security screeners, based on suspicion of alcohol use by the pilot. Subsequent alcohol testing revealed a mean BAC of 90 mg/dL (ranging from 10 mg · dL−1 to 182 mg · dL−1). Of the 17 pilots, 6 were known to be prosecuted criminally, including 5 who were sentenced to jail terms."

As for fatigue, there are so many variables including (stressful) situation, motivation and time of the day which may help a compromised pilots' state of alertness, where he/she copes up successful landings and take-offs except in few unfortunate instances.

Interestingly in case of alcohol, the individual is accountable whereas in case of fatigue, even if an individual may commit errors, invariably it is the ops which is responsible. This could be due to poorly planned rostering and/or inadequate periods of rest and recuperation. However, fatigue compromises aviation safety routinely and more often by forceful actions by airline or compromised conditions due to inadequate rest periods.

Yet since the thread is discussing alcoholism, without condoning the act of the pilot, should one not appreciate that there are systems in place to prevent a 'drunk' pilot from flying and the study quoted above affirms that. It may be equally important that the airlines too, instead of continuing to look at their profitability, start investing in their most vital resource - the human resource. And here I do not mean just 'remunerations' by using the word 'investing' - it means much more than just being a paid employee!
AvMed.IN is offline