Posts Tagged ‘fatigue’

Pakistan Air Lines President Blames Sleepless, Tired Pilots for Crash

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Smoking Hole in Pakistan. Courtesy of AP.

Yet another deadly “smoking hole in the ground” adds to the continuing trail of death left by sleepless and tired pilots being stretched beyond their limits by schedules designed to maximize profits for their employers. 

The worst air crash in Pakistan’s history of Airblue’s flight ED-202 from Karachi to Islamabad killing all 152 aboard may be attributed to pilot fatigue according to the President of Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (PALPA). Captain Sohail Baloch told a private news channel “The pilot may be suffering from accumulated fatigue because they are not given adequate leaves.” He added that the pilot was not in a no-fly zone and speculated that the plane was off course due to bad weather. The pilot had to ”resort to visual queues for landing” because communication with the control tower had been lost due to the weather.

The Hindu.com reports that the pilot , Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry, “had 35 years of experience and had logged over 25,000 flying hours.” Airblue official Raheel Ahmed was quoted in the same article explaining that the Airbus A321 was ten years old, had been used by them for the past four years, and was fully serviceable with no technical faults. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the aircraft at 2600 feet was cleared to land when it rose up to 3000 feet for no apparent reason and then disappeared from the radar. “The (control) tower did not receive any SOS message or report of a technical problem before the crash,” Malik said.  

Only nine weeks ago the world was mourning the loss of 158 people in an Air India crash in the Mangalore hills. That “smoking hole” left eight survivors. The experienced British pilot of that flight misjudged his landing so badly (2000 feet) that “senior pilots, including the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (IPCA) are already blaming pilot fatigue for being responsible for the major accident,” as reported in a China Post article. Two years before that “an Air India Express flight from Mumbai to Dubai overshot its destination by 350 miles after its pilots apparently fell asleep due to fatigue.” The ICPA in response to the Mangalore crash sent a letter to the Prime Minister complaining that “up to 78 percent of crashes were caused by fatigue-related human error.” Flight and Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) in India have not been changed since 1992 when they had no scientific basis for the regulations. Attempts were made in 2005 to change the FDTL but the rule changes were withdrawn under pressure from the “private operators.”

The flight and duty time restrictions worldwide reflect the lack of response from the FAA to the plethora of data now available regarding the effects of sleep deprivation upon mental and physical performance. Our rule changes were dropped in 1995 in response the airline industry’s complaints. Even the unions, strongly supported by then President Bill Clinton, wanted to drop the duty time hours from 16 to 14 hours. Andy Pasztor, in a Wall Street Journal article titled “Dispute Over Cost Delays Pilot Rules,” blames the delay in the rule changes on a dispute between the FAA and the White House Office of Management and Budget. Budget officials have told the FAA informally that “the proposal’s projected cost to airlines wasn’t justified by the anticipated safety benefits.”  Since the FAA is controlled by former air line executives and Washington is still held in the firm grip of powerful airline lobbyists like Linda Daschle we cannot expect the “change” promised by our President in the flowered oratory of his campaign.

The European Cockpit Association, a group of pilots unions with over 38,000 members, accuses the European Union (EU) of “ “endangering air safety by failing to act on the recommendations of experts who say cuts in flying hours are needed to curb pilot fatigue.”  The Air Canada Pilots Association, with over 7,000 members, has been asking for changes to Transport Canada’s regulations for years. Dave Ross, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing pilot unions at six regional airlines, says, “It’s money. If you can’t fly as long as you do today, then that increases your cost.”

 The world continues to scream the alarms to the FAA. The FAA’s mission statement is “to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.” The FAA’s vision statement is “ to reach the next level of safety, efficiency, environmental responsibility and global leadership. We are accountable to the American public and our stakeholders.” The world waits, awake to the ever increasing danger of sleepless and tired pilots threatening our lives. The FAA, Congress, and the Administration continue to hit the snooze button while confined to the bedroom of the airline industry’s sleep inducing lobbyists.

The “smoking holes” of death and the smells of burning flesh are permeating the atmosphere of Obama’s flowery campaign rhetoric about cleaning up the halls of Washington. In 2007 newsmax.com reported on Mr. Obama’s lamenting the fact that “the disproportionate influence of lobbyists and special interest is a problem in Washington (and) in state capitals.” He admitted then that he was “swimming in the same muddy water” and that he knows the waters are muddy. He said “I want to clean it up.” The world is waiting for Mr. Obama, Mr. Babbitt (FAA Administrator), and Mr. LaHood (Transportation Secretary) to exit the bedroom of the airline industry’s sleep inducing lobbyists and go to work on new pilot fatigue regulations. The safety of millions flying the skies continue to see the smoke and to smell the burning flesh. The time has come for you to douse the flames.

Here’s a link to a very sad slide show of crash site photos, courtesy of AP and thehindu.com: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article538554.ece

Another link to a related article from thehindu.com: http://www.thehindu.com/news/article540335.ece

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.

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Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Dazed and Confused, Frozen in Fear, Sleep Deprived, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »

Sleep Deprivation Pandemic Infects the Healthcare Industry

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Sleepy, stressed nurse

The pandemic of sleep deprivation is costing the national economy more than 56 billion dollars a year. These costs have been well documented and proven in many studies. The costs to the health of our doctors and nurses are only beginning to be disclosed. The costs to patients’ health and lives will probably remain clothed by the disinfected, sterile sheets used to cover our helpless and totally dependent bodies. The white code of silence in the health industry is more pervasive than the blue code of silence practiced by our law enforcement agencies. Legal consequences of sleep deprivation’s gangrenous effects in the health industry will keep the facts locked in the icy drawers of the basement morgue.

A recent study of 80 registered nurses conducted by the University of Maryland found that serious sleep deprivation was infecting the industry. The “common practice” of successive 12 hour shifts is increasing the risk of health problems and is increasing the odds of “making patient errors.” 12 hour shifts have been a trend since the nursing shortages began in the 70s and 80s. Jeanne Geiger-Brown, PhD, RN, and associate professor with the school of nursing at UMD, says that nurses often prefer the long shifts and the extra time off to normal 8 hour shifts. The problem with successive 12 hour shifts is that over 50% of those shifts last longer than 12.5 hours. When commute times and responsibilities at home are added to the long workday, there is very little time for sleep. Nurses reported an average sleep time of 5.5 hours between shifts and an even lower average of 5.2 hours for night shift nurses. They reported “extremely fragmented“ sleep. Fragmented sleep is not restorative and the resulting sleep deprivation takes its toll.

A study reported by Reuters in London found that people who work 10 or 11 hours a day have a 60% greater chance of an adverse heart event than those who work an 8 hour shift. One or two hours of overtime did not show an increased risk. Workplace stress by itself “may be as hazardous to your health as smoking, high cholesterol and other conventional risk factors for cardiovascular disease” according to a Wall Street Journal report on Canadian research. It is difficult to imagine a more highly stressed working environment than a hospital emergency room.

The negative effects of sleep deprivation are: a lack of focus and attention; slowed thinking and reactions (similar effects to drinking); apathy; weight gain; high blood pressure and heart disease; a weakened immune system; and depression. These effects can then lead to self-prescribed sleep aids at night and stimulants for work-time wakefulness. That combination can be deadly in the hands of those entrusted with our healthcare. The death of the infected healthcare providers will take time. The effects of weight gain, high blood pressure, heart disease, weakened immune systems, and depression take time to wreak their havoc on the human body. Nurses and doctors in a sleep deprived state have the immediate potential to accidentally take the lives of the patients entrusted to their care.  

Intern work hours were reduced in 2003 from 100 hours a week to no more than 80 hours a week. They are also “limited” to no more than 30 hours in a shift. Those shifts can be repeated every third day. Harvard researchers found that 84 percent of the more than 4000 interns surveyed reported (despite risk of career ending repercussions) work hours in violation of the standards. Their fatigue and lack of concentration is resulting in driving while drowsy car accidents, needlesticks, and scalpel accidents. They risk blood borne illnesses to themselves and associates, errors in prescription recommendations, early burnout from the stresses of the profession, and depression.

Researchers from the UCSD School of Medicine, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), found that the parietal lobes of the brain (responsible for arithmetic performance) are much less active following sleep deprivation. Gregory G. Brown, PhD., associate professor of psychiatry at UCSD, said “…there is not a brain system to come on line to compensate for the negative effects of sleep deprivation.” Arithmetic calculations are used countless times a day by doctors and nurses computing doses of medications and in the planning and execution of operational procedures. The following photos from the December 1999 issue of NeuroReport illustrate the findings.

Photos from the December 1999 Issue of NeuroReport

Sleep deprived brain activity, as shown on the bottom, compared to well rested brain activity shown on the top, certainly endangers the life of the patient. The red areas show least intense activity and yellow areas show most intense activity. The calculations might easily result in deadly mistakes. Jeanne Geiger-Brown cited a study of 393 nurses on 5,317 shifts that found “the odds of making errors by those who reported working more than 12 hours in shifts was three times greater than nurses who reported working 8.5 hour shifts.” She was co-author of an article called “Is it Time to Pull the Plug on 12-Hour Shifts?”

Those 12-hour shifts are not likely to end soon. The shortage of doctors and nurses is worsening once again. It is bound to get even worse as we get closer to the salary constraints of a government administered healthcare system. The white code of silence in the health industry will then be cloaked by a second layer of government cover-up of the life-threatening shortage of sleep deprived healthcare providers. Will there be enough drawers in the icy basement morgues for our future healthcare recipients?

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.

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Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Sleep Deprived, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | 2 Comments »

FAA and NTSB Sound Asleep. Pilot Fatigue Screams the Alarm Again!

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Time to Wake Up!

Despite a promise the Obama administration made in June of 2009 proposing “new limits on how many hours airline pilots can fly” the FAA, the NTSB, and air safety regulators across the globe continue to “sleep in” while the screaming alarms continue to sound. The crash of the Air India flight last week killing 158 people sounded the most recent alarm on possible pilot fatigue and pilot error. The reason I say “possible” is because the investigation for cause of that particular disaster has not been completed. It is doubtful that pilot fatigue will be blamed for the crash. Our air safety regulators choose to continually hit the snooze button and then to throw the alarm out the window. They will no doubt find a simpler cause to the crash. They do not want to confront the airline industry or the airline unions with the stringent new regulations necessary to protect our safety in the air.

Randy Babbitt, FAA administer, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, attended congressional hearings convened to discuss the crash of the Continental Connection Flight 3407 on February 12, 2009 near Buffalo, NY. The crash killed all 49 people on board as well as one person on the ground. The crash was caused by pilot fatigue. Babbitt told Congress and the media that he would propose a new rule addressing pilots’ fatigue related complaints dealing with multiple take-offs and landings (often described as more stressful than long flights) “in the next several months.” Mr. Babbitt, you can wake up now. It’s been well over a year now and we have not seen your new regulations. Babbitt assigned the Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) the task of drafting the new rule changes by September 1, 2009. The committee completed their task on time. An Aviation Today article detailing Mr. Babbitt’s promises described the ARC’s 18 members working together with unions, airline industry representatives, and the FAA. Mr. Babbitt said the group was examining “flight time, duty, and rest limitations; including definitions of rest, duty, fatigue, captain’s authority, and reserve. Scientists who specialize in fatigue made presentations about sleep opportunities, circadian rhythms and potential scheduling.” Wrapping up his speech Mr. Babbitt said, “I can’t say this any more directly than I am right now: We all have to take on additional responsibilities whether we’re legally required to or not. This is about safety, and safety is about saving lives.” The ARC finished up in September 2009, but Mr. Babbitt has been silent ever since.

Our administrators are not the only air safety regulators shunning their alarm clocks’ screaming cries. The European Cockpit Association, a group of pilots unions with over 38,000 members criticized the European Union’s “endangering air safety by failing to act on the recommendations of experts who say cuts in flying hours are needed to curb pilot fatigue. Here in the EU, pilot fatigue is the single biggest “hot potato” safety issue where neither the European Commission nor the European Aviation Safety Agency has shown any leadership to move decisively towards science-based EU rules.” The CBC in Canada has repeatedly reported on Transport Canada’s failures to respond to pilot fatigue issues. More than a dozen crashes linked to pilot fatigue have occurred since Regionnair’s flight 347 crash 10 years ago. Serge Gagne, the pilot of that flight had been working 30 days straight when he crashed in 1999. He was in his 18thhour of duty and was 60 hours over Transport Canada’s monthly limit. The Air Canada Pilots Association, with over 7,000 members, has been asking for changes to Transport Canada’s regulations for years. The regulations haven’t been changed since 1995, and before that, the changes last made were in the 1940s. Our own NTSB has been pressing for new regulations on pilot hours for 19 years. An FAA proposed rule change in 1995 was halted by the air industry. Pilot unions wanted to reduce the duty hours from 16 to 14, but the airline industry said no. Dave Ross, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing pilot unions at six regional airlines, says, “It’s money. If you can’t fly as long as you do today, then that increases your cost.” Mr. Babbitt, Ray LaHood, the Obama administration, and the airline industries need to ask themselves “How much money is human life worth?”

 The Wall Street Journal recently chimed in on this issue with an article by Andy Pasztor titled “Dispute Over Cost Delays Pilot Rules.”   He attributes the delay of proposed changes to a dispute between the FAA and the White House Office of Management and Budget. He says that budget officials have told the FAA informally that “the proposal’s projected cost to airlines wasn’t justified by the anticipated safety benefits.”

Front row seats at the FAA, formerly representing the airline industry belong to:

  • David Weingart: FAA Chief of Staff. Six years with Northwest Airlines.
  • Hank Krakowski: Chief Operating Officer. 30 years at United Airlines.
  • Ramesh Punwani: Chief Financial Officer. Past CFO and VP of Pan American World Airways
  • David Grizzle: Chief Counsel. 22 years at Continental Airlines. Responsible for agency regulation, safety enforcement and compliance programs, and personal and labor law.

Joining these FAA administrators in affecting current air safety regulations and concerns are the following important lobbyists:

  • Former Senators John Breaux and Trent Lott, along with at least 17 former congressional aides and staffers now with Delta Airlines.
  • Sharon Pinkerton, former FAA Assistant Administrator, now with the airlines main lobbying group: Air Transport Association of America.
  • Linda Daschle, wife of former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, former ATA executive and former FAA deputy administrator and acting administrator in the 90s. Now she is one of Washington’s top lobbyists, paid more than $440,000 a year to lobby for American Airlines.

Regulators, airline executives, congressional representatives, and lobbyists are constantly exchanging places in the merry-go-round for money. While they ride their ever changing horses, air safety regulations will take the back seat near the toilets where we can listen to the constant flushes of empty promises disappearing into the thin air.

 In the meantime, we will continue to read frightening data, such as these, reported by Stephen Stock and the investigation team of CBS4 in Miami:

  • “1011 incidents nationwide since 1978 where pilot fatigue caused a safety concern on board the aircraft or an actual crash. 689 of those incidents happened in the last five years (2005-2009).”
  • “Data from the FAA, NTSB, and NASA shows the problem is growing. There were 189 incidents in 2008 which is up from 117 incidents the year before (2007). And in just the first 9 months of 2009 there were 104 incidents of serious pilot fatigue which is the same number as in entire years in the past.”

Their investigation team even found a brochure, published by the NTSB in 1990, “calling for the FAA to address fatigue immediately.”

 Randy Babbitt’s latest word comes from his statementbefore the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Aviation on Update: The Agency’s Call to Action on Airline Safety and Pilot Training. His complete statement can be found on faa.gov. He laments that, despite his direction for an aggressive timeline for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) by the end of last year to update the rules from the mid-1990s, it did not happen. He says, “However, with my continued emphasis on this topic, we hope to issue an NPRM this spring. Although this is slightly later than I originally hoped, it is still an extremely expedited schedule and I can assure you the FAA team working on this is committed to meeting the target.”

 FLUSH, FLUSH, FLUSH…

 RING, RING, RING…

 Anyone hear the alarm going off? It’s ringing! Daylight has arrived. No one hears it. Our sleep deprived pilots are on their radios airing their distress signals. The music of the flushing toilet, the carrousel, and the ride for money are drowning out the cries for passenger safety. When will our regulators awaken from their sleep paralysis?

 Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.

Comments and discussion encouraged. Please click on the comments below.

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Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Frozen in Fear, Sleep Deprived, Worried and Stressed | 1 Comment »

“Extreme Fear” and the Ultimate Choice: Panic or Focus?

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

"The Scream" painting by Edvard Munch

The following introduction is reprinted from “Extreme Fear” with the permission of the author, Jeff Wise…

On June 3, 1970, shortly before noon, a British pilot named Neil Williams strapped himself into the harness of his blue-and-white Zlin Akrobat, a rugged but nimble single-engine airplane built in Czechoslovakia. The World Aerobatic Championship was coming up, and Williams planned to prepare himself by running through the sequence of maneuvers that he’d be flying in competition.

With a lantern jaw, deep-set eyes, and shock of dark hair swept back from a high forehead, Williams looked every bit a casting director’s idea of a daredevil pilot — and in his case, looks did not deceive. Williams was a veteran flyer with a vast and varied store of experience under his belt. In the course of his career he had flown more than 150 different kinds of airplanes and accumulated more than 6,000 hours in flight time. A retired Royal Air Force test pilot, and four-time winner of the UK aerobatic championships, he was, at 36, already regarded as one of the greatest all-around pilots that Britain had ever produced. But his skills had never been tested as they were about to be.

Rafts of fair-weather clouds drifted over the Royal Air Force base at Hullavington, England, as Williams lined up on the runway, opened the throttle, and roared into the air at full power. The wind aloft was gentle, and as Williams climbed he noted with satisfaction that there was no detectable turbulence — that meant he’d be able to carve his maneuvers all the more precisely.

Williams ran his sequence twice through without incident, then brought the Zlin back to level flight and prepared to practice his routine one final time. After only a few minutes in the air, he was already near his limit for fatigue. Competitive aerobatics is a uniquely demanding undertaking. As a mental discipline, it requires exacting attention to detail, the ability to think quickly and three-dimensionally, and to maintain one’s poise while rapidly moving through maneuvers that turn the plane upside down, or cause it to fall backwards, or spin like a top. As a physical discipline, it requires grit and superb fitness as the airplane’s abrupt changes of direction slam the pilot from one side of the cockpit to the other, with centrifugal forces at times pressing on the body with nine times its actual weight and at other times leaving him hanging upside-down from his harness straps. A four-minute aerobatic routine is enough to leave a pilot drained and soaked in sweat.

Midway through the third run-through of his routine, Williams was coming over the top of a loop, a high arcing figure in which his plane carved through the air like a high fly ball. As it reached the top, Williams was upside-down in his seat, the checkered farmland of southwest England arrayed above his head, the cloud-dappled sky under his seat. The plane continued its arc downward past its apex, and the horizon sank toward the bottom of his windscreen until all he could see in front of him was ground. His descent grew steeper and steeper until he was staring straight down.

Barreling earthward through 1500 feet, Williams hauled the stick toward his chest in order to pull the Zlin back to level flight. He clenched his abdominal muscles in anticipation of the resulting g forces, as gravity combined with the centrifugal force of the plane’s curving path would press him into his seat with five times his normal weight. Only by grunting and clenching his leg and stomach muscles could he prevent the blood from rushing out of his head and causing him to black out.

The plane was just coming level with the ground, 1000 feet up, when —BANG! A jolt shook the airplane. The Zlin started rolling left — all except the left wing, which stayed oddly level with the horizon. Williams instantly intuited what had happened: the force of the pull-out had broken the internal spar that gave the wing most of its strength. If that were the case, then the whole wing was about to fall off. He pushed the stick all the way to the right, but the plane kept rolling left. The ground was just 300 feet below and rising fast.

For most pilots, that would have been the end. But in the few seconds he had left before his plane cratered, Williams had an insight. He remembered the story of a Bulgarian pilot who had suffered a malfunction in a similar model of Zlin years before. The circumstances in that case had been different –- the Bulgarian had been flying inverted when a failure of a bolt in one of the wings had caused the plane to unexpectedly flip right-side up. But a detail of the story stuck out: once the Bulgarians plane was right-side up, the wing had snapped back into place. Maybe Williams’ situation was analogous, but reversed. If he went from right-side up to upside down, his wing might snap back in place, too.

In less time than it takes to form a complete thought, Williams threw the stick hard to the left until the Zlin was fully inverted, then pushed the stick forward. His face swelled and turned red as gravity and centrifugal force drained blood from his body into head. WHUMP! With a satisfying thump the wing settled backed into place. By now Williams was almost in the treetops, and for a moment he was sure he was going to crash. Then the plane began to climb.

Hanging in his harness, Williams coaxed the stricken craft skyward, eking out precious altitude foot by foot. He didn’t have much time: his engine, he knew, would only run for eight minutes upside-down. He weighed his options. Without a parachute, his options were stark. Should he try to crash land upside-down in trees? Find a lake to ditch in?

Just then the engine sputtered and died. A new potentially fatal disaster. Williams scanned the cockpit and quickly found the problem: in the initial jolt, he had accidentally hit the knob which shuts off the fuel supply to the engine. He flipped it back to the “on” position. After a few coughs, the engine came back to life.

Williams was running short on time. He decided his best chance for survival was to crash-land at the airfield. He guided the Zlin home and set up his landing approach upside-down. As the end of the runway passed above his head, he pushed the stick hard to the right and rolled the plane rightside up. Again the left wing folded up, and the plane careened sideways as it touched down. Williams curled into a ball until the plane  stopped moving, then broke open the damaged canopy and leapt free. The plane was a wreck, but he had survived without a scratch.

HOW WILLIAMS MANAGED to survive the catastrophic failure of his wing at low altitude is a mystery. In aeronautical terms, to be sure, the question of staying in the air was simply a matter of physics. But the psychology of what happened is another matter. By conventional understanding, Williams should have died that day. Under such intense pressure, with fatal impact a few seconds away, the surge of hormones should have been so intense, the neurons of his fear circuitry so overloaded, that Williams should have been barely able to function, let alone to come up with a creative solution in the blink of an eye.

Something extraordinary must have been going on in his brain. Some mechanism in his psychological tool kit must have somehow protected him from panic and perhaps even given him an extra dose of mental power to get him through the crisis. Whatever he possessed, it was a rare talent. Rare, but not unique. The annals of human achievement are peppered with stories of people who managed to survive lethal danger by thinking on their feet. How do they do it? What makes them different? And, most importantly, what can the rest of us learn from them?

How many professional pilots would have survived this test? Fear offers us the “opportunity” to choose. At times, the choice means life or death. Our choice can be panic, paralysis, and ultimately death. Our second choice is to take a couple of deep breaths, to refocus, and to energize a life-saving response. Seemingly insurmountable challenges to survival are documented in “Extreme Fear.” The read should be inspiring!

A review of “Frozen in Fear, Paralysis and Death, or Challenge to Action”, followed by a reading of “Extreme Fear,” guarantees future postings on one of my favorite topics.

Watch a Zlin 50 fly in this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPRXd-oJcjY&NR=1&feature=fvwp 

Special thanks to Jeff Wise for his reprint permission. Check out his blog at: http://jeffwise.wordpress.com/

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Air India Crash Leaves Smoking Hole at the End of the Runway

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

 

Mangalore Air Crash

An Air India plane carrying 158 passengers and 8 crew members overshot the runway, barrelled through the sand pit, and left a “smoking hole” on the side of a cliff. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation in India has been charged with solving this mystery. There were only 8 survivors of the crash: four with serious injuries, 3 with minor injuries, and one with no injuries. Both pilots, experienced in many successful landings at the Mangalore Airport, were killed along with their crew and 150 passengers. Is this another example of pilot fatigue and pilot error? Too early at this point to determine, but the conditions at the time of the crash eliminate many possibilities:

  • The winds were calm.
  • It was not raining, and the runway was dry.
  • The visibity was good at 6 kilometers.
  • There were no previous malfunctions in the aircraft’s history.
  • Both pilots had many successful landings at Mangalore Airport.
  • They were landing on the longer (8000 ft.) runway and not the shorter (6000 ft.) one.
  • There were no pilot trouble signals reported to the tower on the approach.

Praful Patel, India’s Civil Aviation Minister, told reporters at the scene that the runway was overshot by 2000 feet! His videotaped interview can be  found at ndtv.com and the Press Trust of India.

Will this tragic crash be attributed to the growing problems of pilot fatigue and sleep deprivation? Will more “smoking holes” and lost lives be required to address the world-wide problems? Only time will tell.

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.

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Blue Light and Yellow Goggles: Essential Equipment for Sleep and Mood?

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Blue Light Box

 

Yellow Goggles

Blue light therapy and yellow goggles are becoming essential equipment for sleep disorders, for depression, and for seasonal affective disorder. Advanced sleep phase syndrome, delayed sleep phase syndrome, periodic insomnia, shift work sleep disorders, and jet lag are all related to circadian rhythm interruptions. Photoreceptor cells in the retina have been discovered that are directly linked to the “circadian pacemaker” of our brain: the pineal gland. The pineal gland produces melatonin which is the hormone responsible for our sleep-wake cycle. Daylight suppresses melatonin production and darkness stimulates its production, increasing sleepiness. Kate Le Page, in a recent article, traced the birth of light box therapy to the sanatoria of Europe in the 1870s. Sunlight was found beneficial to the treatment of bacterial diseases common at the time. Scandinavian countries, where the sun is in short supply for much of the year, have taken light therapy more seriously than the rest of the world. A light “shot” can be found on the menu in Finland cafes where you can drink your coffee while receiving your light therapy at the table. Sweden has equipped many cold war bomb shelters with full spectrum lights for therapy purposes. Russia is using light therapy to reduce worker sick days and to increase productivity. Their research has found a link between light therapy and an increase in the body’s ability to cope with pollutants and to boost immunization effectiveness.

Steven Lockley, Charles Czeisler, and George Brainard have done extensive studies on the utilization of blue light to combat sleep issues. They have found that blue light contains more energy than white light and it can be more efficient utilizing less time and energy to alter the sleep-wake cycles. Lockley, in the Harvard University Gazette, suggests that blue light “may be a powerful countermeasure for the negative effects of fatigue for people who work or study at night.” Blue light proved more beneficial than green light in reducing sleepiness, speeding reaction times, and focusing attention.

Dr. Joshua Gooley, in Annals Academy of Medicine, details more specific prescriptions:

  • For later sleep-wake times and phase delay shift:
    • Evening bright light therapy before bed, dim light after wake time.
  • For earlier sleep-wake times and phase advance shift:
    • Morning bright light therapy after wake time, dim light prior to bedtime.
  • For entrainment of sleep-wake cycle and phase advance shift:
    • Morning bright light therapy after wake time, when sleep episode occurs during night.
  • For adaptation to shift work and large phase delay shift:
    • Bright light therapy in evening/night, dim light after work, strict adherence to regular sleep-wake times.
  • For jet lag, eastward travel, and phase advance shift:
    • Morning bright light therapy after wake time (home time), dim light prior to bedtime.
  • For jet lag, westward travel, and phase delay shift:
    • Evening bright light therapy before bedtime (home time), dim light after wake time.

Blue light boxes are available from many sources. The time required to affect a shift should be 15 to 30 minutes over a period of a couple of days. The light source should be placed 1 to 2 feet above the subject and not directly in line with the eye. The photoreceptors linked to your circadian pacemaker detect the light from the bottom of the retina. During dim light periods yellow goggles should be worn for 1 to 2 hours in order to filter out the blue light spectrum.

The best information I found on light therapy for treating depression and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) comes from psycheducation.org. Light therapy was proven to be as effective as antidepressant medication therapy with far fewer side effects. Its use, however, for depression and SAD should take place under a doctor’s supervision. Treatments were initiated at 30 minutes a day and decreased to 15 minutes for maintenance through the winter months. If you are a night owl, your treatment should occur as late as 8 or 9 am. If you are a lark, your treatment should occur as early as 5 am. The therapy works best when applied 8 to 9 hours after the onset of melatonin secretion. The time will be relative to your particular circadian rhythm. An excellent quiz to help determine your rhythm and optimum treatment times and durations can be found at cet-surveys.org.

Get ready for the blue lights and the yellow goggles. Before too long they will be mandatory equipment for our sleep deprived and depression plagued world. Until then, enjoy the sun and the natural cheer it brings!

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.

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Pilot Fatigue/Sleep Monitoring Program Largely Ignored by FAA/NTSB

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Another runway miss

With more than 250 air crashes in the last 15 years linked to pilot fatigue or sleep deprivation issues, it seems our own Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) as well as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have been asleep in their administrative duties. A March 11, 2010 article  from WBZTV discloses that data “collected from NASA, the FAA, and the NTSB showed that “over the past five years there have been 689 incidents where pilot fatigue caused a safety concern or a crash.” Documents tell of pilots nodding off on approaches and even landing on the wrong runways or taxiways. Pilots are sometimes allowed to work 16 hours in a day, though only eight can be in the cockpit. One retired commercial airline pilot admitted, “I can remember more than one time waking up while we were in route. I had been asleep, looking at the clock, looking at the watch, I had been asleep for 20 minutes, 30 minutes.”

Despite the uptick in reports of fatigue and sleep linked accidents, all we continue to hear from the FAA and the NTSB are empty promises of coming changes. In June of 2009 Randy Babbitt (current FAA Administrator) pledged to change pilot regulations, most of which have been in effect since the 1940s. He told reporter Nancy Cordes in her article for CBS News, “We’re gonna have a tough decision to make and I don’t mind making it.” The only recent change to policy has been his approval for pilots to use antidepressant medications on the job. The most common side effects of antidepressants are drowsiness, dizziness and sleep problems, including insomnia. Mr. Babbitt feels that “culture change” and tolerance for those afflicted with depression are more important than the safety of the millions flying the skies. The FAA’s mission statement is “to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.” The FAA’s vision statement is “to improve the safety and efficiency of flight. We are responsive to our customers and are accountable to the taxpayer and the flying public.” The recent antidepressant policy change as well as the continued delay in amending pilot work hour regulations seriously conflict with the FAA’s stated mission and vision objectives.

While our own FAA and NTSB are asleep at the “stick”, allowing the airlines to continue to overwork their pilots, most of the international safety boards are joining them in the bunkhouse. The CBC in Canada reported in a March 2010 article that “Twenty-eight people have died in a dozen plane crashes across Canada over the past decade in which fatigue was cited as a possible factor.” The Canadian Transportation Safety Board reports note “pilot-fatigue-related issues in six deadly crashes and in an additional six accidents – including the Air France crash in Toronto – where all on board survived.”  Canadian regulations allow pilots to be on duty for 14 hours, or 17 in “unforeseen circumstances.”  Barry Wiszniowski, a pilot and expert with the Air Canada Pilots Association, says this about regulations in Canada, “Ours haven’t been modified since 1995 and prior to that in the ‘40s.”Martin Eley, head of civil aviation at Transport Canada, after initially dismissing pilot fatigue complaints from unions, says, “we’ve certainly moved on…in June, we are tabling the terms of reference for a working group to actually start looking at the current science and looking at where we need to update our regulations.” He noted that “it will likely take a couple of years before the rules change.”  A 2001 study recommended six changes to work regulations. Four of the six were ignored by Transport Canada. The changes were to address duty schedules relative to circadian rhythm effects on sleep.

Drew Dawson, an expert on fatigue in the workplace, makes the frightening statement:

“There’s nothing like a smoking hole in the ground to address attention.”

Pilot Kent Wien, inGadling.com, accused the NTSB of “glossing over fatigue” as the cause of the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo, New York last year. They placed total blame on the pilot’s inabilty to properly handle a stall. The crash killed 50 people and the NTSB overlooked the fact that both the pilot and the co-pilot had little sleep in the 24 hours prior to their flight. They placed total blame on inadequate flight simulator training. Robert Sumwalt, one of the NTSB investigators in the case, refused to allow fatigue as a contributing factor saying, “just because the crew was fatigued, that doesn’t mean it was a factor in their performance.” Sleep deprivation studies have proven that performance levels and response speeds for sleep deprived individuals are equivalent or worse than blood alcohol levels of 0.05%. A British Medical Journal study concluded that fatigue does affect performance, finding that, “getting less than 6 hours a night can affect coordination, reaction time, and judgment” and poses “a very serious risk” to drivers.” The NTSB , like the FAA, chooses to ignore the fatigue and sleep deprivation issues jeopardizing the air safety they are charged to protect.

While air transport safety boards and accident investigators overlook fatigue and sleep deprivation as a cause of human error disasters, Air New Zealand has been monitoring and analyzing fatigue, sleep, and fatigue countermeasures since 1998. “Air New Zealand was one of the first airlines in the world to introduce a policy for controlled rest on the flight deck (cockpit napping).” The policy was supported by the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand. It allows for a fatigued crew member to take a 45 minute nap after a briefing of the crew members as to time of waking. “No course changes, altitude changes or fuel transfers are permitted during this period.” The napping is only permitted for 2, 3, and 4=person crews. The fatigue management program has full support of airline management and union groups. Fatigue report forms from pilots detailing excess fatigue, possible causes and remedies are passed to Flight Operations management for possible action or comment and are then analyzed by a Flight Crew Fatigue Study Group (FCFSG) monthly. The group looks for patterns and problems with particular duties and routes.

Pilots participating in studies wear a “Sleepwatch” on the wrist. The sleepwatch measures wrist activity. It provides information on “timing and quality of sleep.”  Three questionnaires are utilized in-flight. Fatigue Visual Analogue Scales rate how pilots feel. A Profile of Mood States asks pilots to score certain words based on their moods. The Stanford Sleepiness Scale scores word pictures of the individual’s fatigue feelings. The questionnaires are short and only require a few minutes of their time. The pilots then take a quick test called the Psychomotor Vigilance Task in which they have to extinguish a randomly flashing light in a small box by pushing a button using his or her thumb. The notebook sized black box measures and records performance and alertness rankings. More importantly it measures “lapses” which took more than 500 milliseconds to accomplish. The FCFSG has taken the data from these studies and has modified “flight and duty time limitations that are considered safe and acceptable on the basis of reliable data.” The group hopes to go pro-active in the future to advise tours of duty before they are introduced instead of modifying them after studies and reports have been completed.  The FCFSG has decided to forgo the marketing of their system and they have opened it to the public domain “for the betterment of flight safety in the International Aviation Community.”

On March 22, 2010 the United States Senate unanimously passed the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act (S.1451) by a margin of 93-0. Chairman Rockefeller made airline safety a “top priority in the bill.” It requires the FAA to “revise the flight and duty time regulations for commercial air carrier pilots and issue the final rule within one year to address pilot fatigue. The existing FAA guidelines on flight time and duty limitations were established in the 1940s without significant modification.” Chairman Rockefeller in a press release of December 2009 said, “Addressing pilot fatigue is an issue for which it has taken far too long to achieve meaningful reform. The travelling public deserves a better effort to make certain any plane on which they fly has an alert and well rested flight crew.”

Fatigue, sleep deprivation, and their effects on our safety in the air have been sufficiently documented. It is time for the FAA, the NTSB, and their partnered agencies across the globe to wake up and to follow the lead of New Zealand Air. Millions of lives are at stake. They should not need any more “smoking holes in the ground” to wake up from the sleep paralysis that’s been plaguing them for years.

 Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.

Your comments are welcomed.

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Tired, Sleepless, And Antidepressant Medicated Pilots Spell Human Error Disasters?

Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Polish air crash scene photo from the BBC

Today’s air disaster killing the Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, and all 96 people on board adds another crash to the list of recent air disasters attributed to pilot error or fatigue. More details can be found in the media reports, but it calls attention to the recent articles I have published, one in an earlier post and this one, reprinted from Articlesbase.com:

Monday marked the first day of the newly revised FAA policy allowing pilots who use antidepressant medications to legally fly the skies. Our sleepless and tired pilots are constantly stressed by their long hours and the constant interruptions of their sleep cycles due to time zone changes. Some of those pilots will now add the effects of antidepressant medications to the list of factors that can affect their abilities to react to unexpected challenges in flight. Will the new policy spell an increase in the number of human error caused disasters?

Greg Griffin in an article in the Denver Post asserts, “Human error factors were cited as the primary problem in 74 commercial aviation safety incidents reported at Denver International Airport since 2005, according to a NASA database of voluntary, anonymous reports from pilots and others.” A joint report from the FAA and the aviation industry concluded that, “loss of control accidents – in which the crew was unable to recover from an unexpected event such as engine failure or a stall – accounted for 42 percent of commercial aviation fatalities worldwide from 1999 through 2008, more than any other cause.” Human factors such as sleep deprivation, mental distractions, scheduling, and training are all contributing factors. The United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority reported last year that “flight crews were the primary cause of two-thirds of fatal commercial and business plane crashes worldwide from 1997 through 2006.” Our own FAA found in a 2006 study that “from 1990 to 2002, 45 percent of major airline accidents in the United States and 75 percent of commuter-carrier crashes were associated with human error.”

Addendum to published article –

     A report in  February 2000 by the Department of Transportation/FAA studied the multiple facets of the literature’s assertions that “between 70-80% of airline accidents can be attributed, at least in part, to human error.”

 

The February 2009 crash of Colgan Air’s Flight 3407 in Buffalo NY, killing 50 people, was attributed to fatigue, training, and pay. The NTSB attributed most of the blame to the lack of proper simulator training. The lack of proper simulator training also was a factor in the 2001 crash of an American Airlines A300-600 that killed 265 people.

An October 2009 Delta Airlines plane with 182 passengers landed safely on a taxiway at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. The FAA is still investigating this case where fatigue from a ten hour flight and the distraction of a medical emergency on board could have caused the serious error.

The Northwest Airlines A320 overshot runway incident in October 2009 at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport has been attributed to distraction, but sleeping on board was also suggested. The pilot and copilot claimed they were busy on their laptops, but air traffic controllers were not able to contact the plane for an hour and eighteen minutes. The plane had been at risk of being shot down by fighter planes dispatched in a concern over a possible high jacking.

With all of these stats supporting the conclusion that most airline disasters are caused by human error, it seems incomprehensible that the FAA would add the side effects of antidepressants to the already growing problems of fatigue, stress, and sleep deprivation. The dangerous side effects of antidepressant prescriptions are well documented. The dangers disclosed on the labels of Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, and Lexapro are enough to stoke fears in the most confident air travelers. Randy Babbitt, FAA Administrator, responsible for the change reversing policy in effect for more than 70 years, chooses “culture change” and a new, more tolerant view of those affected by depression over and above the public safety he is charged to protect. How many lost lives in future disasters will be required before we return to time tested policy?   

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/tired-sleepless-and-antidepressant-medicated-pilots-spell-human-error-disasters-2114011.html

“How many lost lives in future disasters will be required before we return to time tested policy?”

Here’s a shocking YouTube video compilation on the side effects of antidepressants: CLICK HERE . And the FAA says these drugs are safe for our pilots to use on the job???

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.

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Sleep Replacement Miracles on the Way for Narcoleptics and Sleepless World

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Asleep at work

Two miracle drugs for narcoleptics and the sleepless and tired world are in the testing stages. Arena Pharmaceuticals announced on March 24, 2010 that they will be doing Phase 1 clinical trial testing of APD916. APD916 is an oral drug that targets the histamine H3 receptor in the brain and, as an agonist, it stimulates histamine production which increases arousal.  The second drug, already in testing, is Orexin-A, which is a naturally occurring brain hormone which increases arousal and cognitive functions. Approximately one in every 2,000 Americans are narcoleptic and more than 70% of Americans get less than the recommended 8 hours of sleep a night. Until these drugs are approved the sleepless and tired will be endangering themselves as well as the millions of people on the road with them every day.

Narcolepsy, as described by Wikipedia, “is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in which a person experiences extreme fatigue and possibly falls asleep at inappropriate times, such as while at work or at school.” The narcoleptic usually has problems sleeping at night and, unlike most of us, they “generally experience the REM stage of sleep within 10 minutes; whereas most people do not experience REM sleep until after 30 minutes.” These rapid transitions into deep sleep can lead to extremely dangerous situations if they happen at work or on the road. Other symptoms that often accompany narcolepsy are cataplexy (muscle function loss), sleep paralysis, hallucinations, and “automatic behaviors” (normal waking functions performed while asleep, but not remembered when awakened).

The protein, Orexin, produced in the brain, is responsible for appetite control as well as the regulation of sleep patterns. The direct cause of narcolepsy has not been found yet, but there appear to be links to gene defects in one or more of the chromosomes responsible for the production of the hypocretins (orexins) in the brain. Orexin production peaks during the hours of wakefulness. Findings published by genome.cshlp.org have shown that dogs born without functioning hypocretin genes develop many symptoms of narcolepsy. Similar links have been found in mice.      

Amphetamines are the current solution offered to sleep deprived individuals. They are often given to pilots, to truck drivers, and to military personnel on critical missions. These stimulants have many harmful side effects and they are also addicting. The more serious physical side effects are:  headache, tachycardia, increased breathing rate, increased blood pressure, fever, diarrhea, blurred vision, dizziness, uncontrollable movements or shaking, insomnia, numbness, palpitations, arrhythmia, convulsions, and heart attack. The negative psychological side effects are: irritability, aggression, power and superiority feelings, obsessive behaviors, paranoia, and amphetamine psychosis. The side effects are frightening, the addiction problem is well documented, and the withdrawal problems can be even more problematical.

 Modafinil (Provigil), manufactured by Cephalon, is another stimulant used to treat narcolepsy and sleep deprived individuals. It was approved by the FDA in 1998 and it has been used effectively by the US, the French, the British, and the Canadian militaries. Our Air Force refers to it as the “Go Pill,” and it is used in aircraft where there are two pilots. Modafinil stimulates histamine production and it does not have the drastic side effects of the amphetamines. Nausea, dizziness, and vertigo have been reported in much lower frequency. The long term effects are still in question. Abuse potential is minimal, as is the cardiovascular stimulation found with the amphetamines.

Neither amphetamine treatments, nor modafinil treatments attack the orexin deficiencies linked to narcolepsy. A study presented to the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in 2007 showed that histamine producing neurons and orexin producing neurons have direct roles in the control of wakefulness. The research concluded that both neurons have “synergistic and complimentary” roles. APD916, from Arena Pharmaceuticals, assists the histamine producing neurons and Orexin-A is a naturally occurring peptide in the brain. Both attack the deficiencies responsible for our sleepless and tired feelings and the symptoms of narcolepsy.

A study conducted at Wake Forest University School of Medicine found that the effects of sleep deprivation were reversed when Orexin-A was administered to monkeys in either intravenous or intranasal formats. The intranasal spray produced superior results when compared to the intravenous injections. When the monkeys were not sleep deprived the Orexin-A did not have any effect on their performance levels. The potential for the intranasally administered Orexin-A is reported in Molecular Interventions.  The spray’s potential is far greater due to its ease of application and its quick results.

Jerome Siegel, professor of psychiatry at UCLA, and a co-author of the study reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, says “It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess.” “If the underlying deficit is a loss of orexin, and it clearly is, then the best treatment would be orexin,” he adds.

Orexin-A and APD916 are a long way from reaching our shelves. The testing and approval process can take years. Many people will be falling asleep waiting.

The world is waiting.

 The entire sleepless and tired world may be snorting Orexin-A or taking ADP916 in the future. The prospects look “stimulating.”

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.

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