Principles and Guidelines for Duty and Rest Scheduling in Commercial Aviation

Abstract

Verbatim from NASA NTRS. Not paraphrased, not summarized.

The aviation industry requires 24-hour activities to meet operational demands. Growth in global long-haul, regional, overnight cargo, and short-haul domestic operations will continue to increase these round-the-clock requirements. Flight crews must be available to support 24-hour-a-day operations to meet these industry demands. Both domestic and international aviation can also require crossing multiple time zones. Therefore, shift work, night work, irregular work schedules, unpredictable work schedules, and dm zone changes will continue to be commonplace components of the aviation industry. These factors pose known challenges to human physiology, and because they result in performance-impairing fatigue, they pose a risk to safety. It is critical to acknowledge and, whenever possible, incorporate scientific information on fatigue, human sleep, and circadian physiology into 24-hour aviation operations. Utilization of such scientific information can help promote crew performance and alertness during flight operations and thereby maintain and improve the safety margin.

Authors

• Dinges, David F. Pennsylvania Univ.
• Graeber, R. Curtis Boeing Commercial Airplane Co.
• Rosekind, Mark R. NASA Ames Research Center
• Samel, Alexander Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt