NBAA is coordinating with the University of North Dakota (UND) to conduct a survey regarding fatigue and crew duty issues in business aviation.
UND graduate student and business aircraft pilot Tim Wollmuth is partnering with NBAA to collect the data. It’s the first comprehensive study of fatigue issues since a 2000 study was released through NASA and conducted by Dr. Mark Rosekind, former NTSB member and current administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The survey is now open to NBAA members, and will conclude April 21.
Rosekind’s study focused primarily on pilots, but the new NBAA/UND study will not only look at aviators, but also maintenance personnel (including technicians who travel with the aircraft), cabin crew, schedulers and dispatchers and others in business aviation who work in safety-sensitive functions.
The survey will cover areas such as duty information for various crew positions, single-pilot operations, specific questions on sleep and fatigue, demographics and questions for management.
“We know from the NBAA Safety Committee’s annual risk assessment survey that fatigue remains a top concern of our membership,” said Mark Larsen, NBAA’s senior manager of safety and flight operations. “We welcome participant feedback in this study to understand in detail the current state of business aviation fatigue, to see what things look like 17 years after the Rosekind study, including such factors as the increased number of ultra-long range aircraft in service since that time, so we can best understand how to address and mitigate this safety issue.”
The survey is the result of work conducted by the NBAA Safety Committee, Flight Attendant Safety/Training Subcommittee and Business Aviation Management Committee, in conjunction with Wollmuth and UND. Once the results have been aggregated, the data will be used to update the NBAA Management Guide and other information related to fatigue in business aviation.
