Pilot Fatigue

S. HRG. 111–515 AVIATION SAFETY: PILOT FATIGUE HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION OPERATIONS, SAFETY, AND SECURITY OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION DECEMBER 1, 2009 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 54–497 PDF WASHINGTON : 2010 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:59 Jul 08, 2010 Jkt 054497 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\54497.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas, Ranking JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BARBARA BOXER, California JIM DEMINT, South Carolina BILL NELSON, Florida JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey GEORGE S. LEMIEUX, Florida MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri DAVID VITTER, Louisiana AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas TOM UDALL, New Mexico MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska MARK WARNER, Virginia MARK BEGICH, Alaska ELLEN L. DONESKI, Staff Director JAMES REID, Deputy Staff Director BRUCE H. ANDREWS, General Counsel ANN BEGEMAN, Acting Republican Staff Director BRIAN M. HENDRICKS, Republican Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION OPERATIONS, SAFETY, AND SECURITY BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, JIM DEMINT, South Carolina, Ranking Chairman Member DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BARBARA BOXER, California JOHN THUNE, South Dakota BILL NELSON, Florida ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi MARIA CANTWELL, Washington MEL MARTINEZ, Florida FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey GEORGE S. LEMIEUX, Georgia MARK PRYOR, Arkansas DAVID VITTER, Louisiana CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska MARK WARNER, Virginia MARK BEGICH, Alaska (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:59 Jul 08, 2010 Jkt 054497 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\54497.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on December 1, 2009 ........................................................................ 1 Statement of Senator Dorgan ................................................................................. 1 Statement of Senator Lautenberg .......................................................................... 5 Statement of Senator LeMieux ............................................................................... 27 Statement of Senator Klobuchar ............................................................................ 30 Statement of Senator Snowe ................................................................................... 32 WITNESSES Margaret Gilligan, Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, Federal Avia- tion Administration .............................................................................................. 7 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 7 Basil J. Barimo, Vice President, Operations and Safety, Air Transport Asso- ciation of America, Inc. ........................................................................................ 11 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 12 Captain John Prater, President, Air Line Pilots Association, International ...... 14 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 15 William R. Voss, President and CEO, Flight Safety Foundation ........................ 19 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 20 APPENDIX Cargo Airline Association, prepared statement .................................................... 45 Ronald N. Priddy, President, National Air Carrier Association (NACA), prepared statement ................................................................................................... 46 Captain Paul Onorato, President, Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations, prepared statement .............................................................................................. 47 Response to written questions submitted by Hon. John D. Rockefeller IV to: Margaret Gilligan ............................................................................................. 49 William R. Voss ................................................................................................ 49 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:59 Jul 08, 2010 Jkt 054497 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\54497.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:59 Jul 08, 2010 Jkt 054497 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\54497.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE AVIATION SAFETY: PILOT FATIGUE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2009 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION, OPERATIONS, SAFETY, AND SECURITY, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:14 a.m. in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Byron L. Dorgan, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA Senator DORGAN. We’re going to call the hearing to order. This is a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sub- committee on Aviation. My colleagues will be joining me shortly, but I want to begin on time. The discussion today is on the subject of pilot fatigue. Now, let me describe my concern about this issue, and the concern of a num- ber of my colleagues. The issue of pilot fatigue is not new. It has been on the National Transportation Safety Board’s most-wanted list for 19 years, since the list was created. Pilot fatigue has con- sistently been an issue with the NTSB and the FAA. The current flight rules, I believe, have been in existence—with respect to duty time and so on, have been in existence for some 40 or 50 years without much change. The NTSB investigations have found that pilot fatigue was either the probable or the contributory cause of 20 air carrier accidents in the U.S., and has caused 273 fatalities between 1989 and 2008. So, this is not some issue without substan- tial consequence. The NTSB’s outstanding pilot-fatigue-related safety recommenda- tion calls on the FAA to revise the flight- and duty-time limitations to take into consideration research findings on fatigue and sleep issues. While the FAA also limits the amount of flight and duty time a pilot may work in a day—and these—as I said, these limits have existed for decades—commuting time, which is an increasing phe- nomenon in recent decades, is not factored into this requirement at all. And I’ll talk just for a moment about that today. The stories that we have heard are fairly frightening. And I want to say, from the outset, my goal today is not to alarm the flying public, far from it. We have the safest skies in the world, in my judgment. But, the issue of pilot fatigue is serious and merits attention. While the skies are safe, they are not perfect. And the— (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:59 Jul 08, 2010 Jkt 054497 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\54497.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE 2 two events that focused more recent attention on pilot fatigue— there was a Minneapolis overflight recently, an incident last month that has sparked much comment on how two pilots could have overflown their destination by 150 miles. There was speculation that perhaps the pilots were asleep. The pilots indicated that they were working on electronic devices. No one, I guess, quite knows all of those answers at the moment. The second is, the tragic crash of Colgan Air flight 3407. We’ve held a couple of hearings that have discussed that at some length. The NTSB is still conducting its investigation into that tragic accident, and has yet to issue a report on the cause of the accident. But, we do know that both pilots commuted from across the coun- try earlier that day, one from Florida and one from Seattle, to reach their duty stations in Newark. What I want to do is go through a few charts, if I might. And let me begin on the front side of this, with the first chart, talking about crew rest. These are just some things that most of you and I have heard and seen on investigative reports and official reports. This happens to be a Wall Street Journal article about fatigue. Tom Wychor, an 18-year veteran pilot, describing the routine of com- muter flights with short layovers in the middle of the night, says, ‘‘Take a shower, brush your teeth, pretend you slept.’’ ‘‘Take a shower, brush your teeth, pretend you slept.’’ Well, I don’t know Mr. Wychor, but that kind of comment by somebody in the cockpit makes you question the issue of fatigue and whether we have done all that is necessary to make certain that fatigue is not a contributing factor to problems in the cockpit. Another pilot—and again, pilots, of course, are not in a position to be able to speak very effectively or very candidly about these things. This is an anonymous pilot of a 737 jet flying

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