Cargo

Even since the Colgan Air accident, fatigue became a major concern for the FAA. Fatigue is the feeling of tiredness or lack of energy, commonly because of lack of sleep. After the accident, the FAA started imposing new duty/rest regulations. Currently, the rest requirements are: nine hours of rest if less than eight hours duty time, 10 hours of rest for less than nine hours but more than eight hours duty time, and 11 hours of rest for more than nine hours of duty time. The old duty times were eight hours of rest once the flight was complete. This did not allow enough time for pilots to go to the hotel and aquire eight hours of sleep the average person needs. However, cargo is under different rules.

In the cargo world, the rules for duty/rest times are much different. The rules for duty/rest requirements vary depending on the number of pilots however, one rule allows no rest period. 121.503 part (f) allows it to where if there are 2 pilots, a flight engineer, a working pressurization system, and an approved independent communication system, than the pilots may be scheduled for more than eight hours, no more than 10, with out a rest period. I believe this exception came to be because, cargo does not carry passengers. I also believe the cargo companies are afraid that with out 121.503 part (f) they would have a harder time scheduling pilots. But should cargo be excused from the new fatigue laws?

I believe cargo should not have been excluded from the new laws because, they are still flying a plane and while it is not endangering passengers, it does endanger the people on the ground. Cargo also does most of its flying at night. Flying at night is more dangerous because, the average person’s biological clock. The average person has two peak low points a day. The first low point is in the mid afternoon and the other at night, when the average person goes to bed. With pilots flying at a time when they would be sleeping, stricter duty/rest periods should have been applied to the cargo industry, to ensure safety.

If cargo were to adapt the new airlines duty/rest rules, I believe that there would be no significant changes or complications to my career. With the high volume of traffic during the day, I do not expect cargo to switch when they do most of their flying. I do not believe scheduling to be a problem either. While the cargo industry would need to hire more pilots to meet with the hour requirements I do not believe the pilot shortage has hit a point to greatly affect the cargo industry. In fact I believe cargo could open up to lower time pilots offering them a potential alternative to the low paying regional airlines.

References:

Far/FC 2015
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/getting/bio-clock