Fatigued vs intoxicated
Having just watched an episode of Mythbusters where an experiment was carried out on the effects of fatigue vs alcohol impairment, the results were profound and very obvious that it was far more dangerous to operate a vehicle while being sleep deprived than being slightly intoxicated (.06). This is another piece of data added to a growing body of evidence that shows how dangerous fatigue can be. To be clear I'm not suggesting that there should be any relief from the industry regulations on rules governing alcohol use but instead questioning why the worldwide airlines and regulatory bodies seem to ignore what is becoming a clear and present danger in the global airline industry. The science is clear and I believe that airlines and regulating bodies will be culpable in any future accident that has fatigue as one of the cause factors. Money talks but so do expensive lawsuits.