From todays Times
AIRLINE pilots will refuse to fly aircraft chartered to evacuate casualties of war because the Government is seeking to relax flight safety rules.
The Department for Transport has produced a draft directive requiring civilian pilots flying jets chartered by the Armed Forces to work for more than 19 consecutive hours, six hours more than the present legal limit.
The Government is negotiating contracts with several airlines to provide aircraft and crews to evacuate the injured and to ferry troops and supplies. It wants to change safety rules to allow for the special circumstances of waging war.
The DfT directive, a copy of which has been obtained by The Times, says that pilots operating medical flights can have their duty hours extended by four hours beyond the present 13hr 15min maximum. Pilots can be ordered to work for 70 hours a week, 15 hours more than the existing 55-hour limit. Rest periods between shifts have also been cut to a minimum of nine hours.
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) said the rule changes could lead to an exhausted pilot making a fatal error after a 19-hour day. Trevor Phillips, Balpa’s head of scheduling, said: “It is clearly unsafe to allow such huge increases in the duty period. The existing safety rules are there for a reason but this directive would mean pilots returning over densely populated areas when they are dangerously fatigued.”
Balpa is advising its members to refuse to undertake such flights and is calling on airlines not to sign contracts unless safety standards are maintained. Military pilots are already permitted to work much longer hours than civilian pilots, but they are given pills to keep them alert. Civilian pilots are banned from taking any stimulants.
Any evacuation flights are expected to fly from Cyprus or Kuwait. The flight time to London from Cyprus is about five hours but the chartered aircraft would take an hour longer when carrying casualties as they would have to fly at a lower altitude to maintain the optimum flow of oxygen.
I would have thought that if the country goes to war BALPA might be a bit more flexible in its interpretation of the rules, especially to help badly wounded troops to get to medical treatment.