Corporate Culture
In many places(countries), the aviation regulations have degenerated into a competition by the operator on how to get around the law to increase profits at any cost, especially the lives of fare paying passengers.
There are rules, varying quite alarmingly from country to country, which are intended to govern the rostering of aviation crews. However, no other aspect of the aviation industry receives as much attention from it's managers (up to CEO and COO) as that of crew rosters and how to circumvent the regulations or at worst steer the operation into a 'grey area'.
This is practiced as the holy grail of maximizing profits, crew rostering. Here we can make our biggest profit gains.
The regulations are a set with maximum limits set. Here is 'problem' number one. The limits are maximums. The operators however see these as target limits, there to be 'achieved'.
In addition, there are extensions on these limits to accommodate the operator should the schedule go over by a minute and up to 3 hours if need be. Use of the 3rd hour of extension normally requires a close cooperation with the local civil aviation authority, to help.
These over extensions and under rest limits are all "to be used to the maximum".
One of the basic deviations from the law which cannot easily be traced, is the time when the crew are expected (not required) to report for a flight. This can be anything from 15 minutes earlier to 5 or 6 hours earlier in the case of charter operations to accommodate the client arriving late. One then only enters the start time afterwards as the required time, allowing you to still have your original maximum working period even though you might already have been on duty for 6 hours!
Bear in mind, loads and loads of people worldwide work difficult hours and all through the night. However, how many of these occupations can result in the near instant death of scores to hundreds of people? Aircraft crews and nuclear power plant operators and a small handful of other occupations.
It may sound callous, but human lives are not in any way a deterrent for the profit requirements of airlines/air operators. Bearing in mind that some time ago already a survey proved that all current operators could run at a profit if all of them just increased each leg they fly by an amount of $5.
But the free market allows us to undercut each other to sink the opposition and thus take their operations over.
Hence, the absolute mercenary attitude to business. That, includes your and your loved ones lives for profit.
The industries presence and foresight into regulations is what has resulted in the international standards of limitations on flight deck crew being drawn up and implemented. Note the strict limits on for argument sake, truck drivers in say Germany. Far more stringent than air crews.
The bottom line is, until the fare paying passengers come forward and demand proper flight time limitations for air crew, it will not happen.
Currently the air operators can draw up work schedules for airline AND charter crews which allow for pilots to fly airplanes whilst tired. A case in point; the English word fatigue has been 'analyzed' and given certain defining characteristics. e.g. certain levels of body chemicals (cortisols) when fatigued is required for you to be fatigued, otherwise you cannot invoke fatigue as a reason to say you are unsafe to fly because you are tired.
Now we are not even mentioning living conditions/lifestyles. If that is mentioned, you will be targeted for troublemaking. So now you can easily have pilots flying airplanes who hate being there. Not a very healthy situation.
Once again, the air law is and has to be written in human blood before it is adhered to. More accidents will be happening whilst air operators manipulate the flight time limits to achieve greater and greater profits.