It is up to us as professional aviators to set the standards that we will accept and not accept, and that is an issue here that is often lost.
Spot on Big W
That is why I am asking questions of my fellow aviators such as
are we doing enough to ensure the pilots starting these duties will be ok at the end of them?
and
Can we really expect sharp performance in an emergency situation after being awake for 18 hours after 5 hours of broken sleep?
and
With the wealth of research data available reporting that one of the effects of fatigue is an inability to judge your own level of fatigue, does the ATSB really sanction such statements?
But that does not excuse poor airmanship or unprofessional behaviour. If I ever have a FO on my flight pull out a mobile phone on descent and use it then he'll be paxing the next sector home.
I agree. And I imagine that the command vacuum that existed during the last 3000ft of the incident flight wouldn't occur if you were in the left seat. However,just because there are salient causes doen't mean fatigue and rostering practices played no role. I can see the other causes clearly but that doesn't mean it is folly (or BS to use your terminology) to chip away publicly at the idea that FRMS is doing it's job.
Cheers.