'More than half' of pilots have slept while flying

More than half of pilots have fallen asleep while in charge of a plane, a survey by a pilots' union suggests.

Of the 56% who admitted sleeping, 29% told Balpa that they had woken up to find the other pilot asleep as well.

'More than half' of pilots have slept while flying

As funny as this may sound it could be scary, imagine flying at 600 mph and high in the sky and o wait, cap 'em fell asleep

o well i guess we got auto pilot





at least they all aren't drinking..

reply to post by hknudzkknexnt


As a former flight attendant, this comes as no surprise. It's a damn good thing autopilot exists! I once had a first officer tell me he was flying with a grumpy old captain and accidentally fell asleep. He woke up and realized he'd been napping and knew that the captain was going to rip him a new one. He slowly looked over at the captain, expecting to be yelled at, only to see that the captain was napping himself.

reply to post by hknudzkknexnt


You know what? I don't mind a person getting paid to sit in a chair and twiddle knobs, talk junk into a Britney mic, and have an inflated self opinion, but only if the sucker is going to stay awake while dispensing his duties!

Of course they do, and I don't blame them. A short haul pilot can start flying at 3 or 4 am, which means a 2am show up time for paperwork, preflight, etc. They only get paid for their flight time, so they do a lot of that unpaid.

That first flight may start at 4am, and depending on where they are, last anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple hours. Then they land, file a flight plan and head on to their next destination. Wash, rinse, repeat. For shorter flights (20-45 minutes) they may do that 8-10 times a day. Keep in mind now, that you're looking at 45 minutes to an hour added for turn around between flights sometimes if they have to clean anything.

That makes for a very long day, after which, they go home, fall into bed, get up the next day and do it over again.

So of course some days they're going to grab that extra few minutes of sleep, and I don't blame them for it.

I have a friend who flies corporate jets. He says they nap all the time....

....unless they are having to serve drinks....which he hates

reply to post by hknudzkknexnt

I am more worried about our representatives sleeping at the wheel, they have yet to come up with an autopilot for legislative responsibility.

What this tells me is that pilots sleeping doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Yeah I would say this is pretty normal practice from what I have heard from my pilot friends. Last thing we want is to start a "meth-head" pilot trend like we have with long-haul truckers.

What do you expect? American pilots are paid crap wages. Some of the them make less than 15,000 a year. Couple that with stressful work demands, (Having to work all odd hours of the day, being away from home, etc) and it's a breeding ground for this kind of thing.

The only thing they get out of the job now is ego boosters, they get to say, "I'm a pilot. I'm a captain", but they haven't been treated like that for a long while now.

One day long ago this actually meant something... respect, and a wage closer to 100+/year. What happened?

reply to post by Zaphod58


I can understand some one wanting to catch up on their sleep, but one at a time at least. Rest schedules should be mandatory, in my opinion. For a start its not healthy to sleep so little as these folk must. And for another thing, no matter what is happening, there should always be one, conscious pilot in every cockpit, no matter how many stops are being made.

There's not a damned thing wrong with a pilot and co-pilot arranging a schedule of sleep, or watches if you will. That's a totally natural way to deal with this sort of thing. But having both the people who are in command of an aircraft, sleeping on the job is just ridiculous, auto-pilot or not!

gemineye
reply to post by hknudzkknexnt

 

As a former flight attendant, this comes as no surprise. It's a damn good thing autopilot exists! I once had a first officer tell me he was flying with a grumpy old captain and accidentally fell asleep. He woke up and realized he'd been napping and knew that the captain was going to rip him a new one. He slowly looked over at the captain, expecting to be yelled at, only to see that the captain was napping himself.

Lol, That's a nice one, although not very surprising.
When you are straight and level and on auto, boredom kills you

reply to post by Vasa Croe


The meth head trucker is a thing of the past, and hasn't been around for awhile. There are still a few of course but is hardly an epidemic.

Ya ever find yourself driving cross country and get hypnotized by the endless road/desert/or miles of pine trees lining the sides of the interstate - and find yourself falling asleep? It happens all the time to motorists. I suspect this is part of the same reason why pilots fall asleep. Not much to look at up there.

Since more than half fall asleep, it's a wonder we don't hear of crashes constantly yet we do not.

I'm not a pilot but i did fly a Cessna once for about 15 minutes ( i didn't take off or land) - even stepped on the ball while doing it. It was an offer from a pilot friend who knew I had learned the controls in a Microsoft Flight Simulator - Well as Real as it Gets was real enough for me to impress my pilot friend with the Cessna. And it was one of the most incredible and liberating experiences of my life. I highly recommend it. ( I could actually feel the weight of the plane under me as I turned to a different heading - hard to describe unless you've felt it. You get the same kind of feeling as in a roller coaster or go kart speeding through the wind.)

Microsoft Flight Simulator flies in real time. Going from New Orleans to Chicago takes about 2 and 1/2 hours in the simulator as well as real life. At 30,000 feet there is not a lot to see or do once you have your plane pointed in the right direction 'cept for subtle course corrections. It can be very boring at times. ( Try it yourself and see)

I can easily see why the pilots could fall asleep. Auto pilot for the most part does an excellent job. There are many alerts that will wake a pilot in case anything happens the auto pilot isn't programmed to deal with. I would actually not mind so much as long as the pilot and co-pilot took turn sleeping.

well there goes " Auto-Pilot " lol
*****new FFAA Rulebook Guide: Auto-Pilot----only too be used in an Emergency Situation*
*see sec3 par.b subsec A

boncho
What do you expect? American pilots are paid crap wages. Some of the them make less than 15,000 a year. Couple that with stressful work demands, (Having to work all odd hours of the day, being away from home, etc) and it's a breeding ground for this kind of thing.

The only thing they get out of the job now is ego boosters, they get to say, "I'm a pilot. I'm a captain", but they haven't been treated like that for a long while now.

One day long ago this actually meant something... respect, and a wage closer to 100+/year. What happened?

That may (does) apply to the commuter airlines but mostly only to the new hire first officers; the captains make somewhere between $55,000 and $70,000+ a year. Some start up airlines promise the moon for peanut pay...but so did South West when they first started... A few of my friends retired millionaires from their stock options alone...

However for the majors you are off with regards to pay. My friends still working make over $20,000 a month on the B737 and over $30,000 for the 757-767.....777 more than that..for a full line of time . An they are not over paid IMO. However those on the outside looking in may think so.

265 souls on board plus crew, plus 45 million dollar aircraft that is given to a person because of their proven ability to keep the company out of trouble and deliver the passengers time after time to their destination.

The Captain signs for the aircraft when he signs the dispatch release. Everything is his responsibility from the moment he/she boards the aircraft; THE Captain is held responsible if there is a problem with the flight ...

No one talks about the years building time and schooling to make yourself have the slightest chance of being hired. Back in my day there were supposedly 35,000 airline seats for pilots and 235,000 trying to get those jobs. I was hired because, being x-military and a Corporate pilot (727 qualified) I had several thousand hours flight time more than the other applicants who applied ... They needed guys who do the job.. I said I could and my log book and references backed me up...
As far as you comment about ego boosters?? It is a fad now to hate anyone who has worked the tail off and finally succeeded in their life's goals....some might say they did not build it so it must have been given to them etc etc.. Sorry for anyone that feels that way for the people I know are highly trained professionals who pay more in taxes than many people make at their full time job in a year. . They worked/sacrificed their butts off to get to that position....

Sleeping while flying... With a 3 man crew it would happens sometimes that a crew member fell asleep... But usually they would advise the other two crew members they were going to get 20 minutes shut eye. I never saw it happen on a two man crewed aircraft but that does not mean it did not happen on other crew members flights. Long haul international flights we have a bunk in the cockpit and relief pilots who man the aircraft as the primary pilots get some rest and sleep. LAX to some Asian destinations can be 22 hours flight time.

Im never EVER flying again.

Tylerdurden1
Im never EVER flying again.

Why not?

reply to post by Psykotik


Because America should upgrade its current rail system to something more modern and desirable for short distance travel. How many problems would that solve and how many jobs would it create?

reply to post by Thorneblood


Even high speed rail is less efficient for short trips than a plane is.

reply to post by greencmp


And the doors locked so we can't wake them up