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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Will The FAA’s New Fatigue Rules Do Enough For Pilots?


Taking into account recent scientific research, the Federal Aviation Administration announced new rules on Dec. 21 that are aimed at reducing fatigue among commercial airline pilots.
Airlines must now consider several factors when scheduling, including pilots’ duty periods, the number of time zones crossed and the time at which pilots start their first flight. Pilots must now have a 10-hour rest period before reporting for duty, a two-hour increase over previous regulations. The FAA has also increased the number of consecutive free hours pilots must have per week to 30 hours. And, added acting FAA administrator Michael Huerta, “If a pilot reports that he or she is fatigued, then the airline must remove the pilot from duty,” says acting FAA administrator Michael Huerta.

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