CAPA Opposes Crew Fatigue Lawsuit

The Coalition of Airline Pilot Associations (CAPA) Safety Council has

weighed in with an opinion to the Dec. 24, 2008 lawsuit filed in the Washington

federal appellate court by seven US carriers (American, Continental, Atlas Air,

Evergreen Intl., JetBlue, United and US Airways) concerning FAA OpSpec A332,

which beefs up flight deck crew rest rules.

Capt. Paul Onorato, CAPA president, says the CAPA Safety Council "is of

the opinion that the current proposed FAA guidelines contain substantive

improvements in addressing flight crew fatigue that must be supported. Ultra

long haul flying requires an appropriate number of crew in properly staffed

positions to guard against the debilitating physiological effects of fatigue.

"To this end, the council retains its technical objection to the crew

complements referred to in the draft OpSpec. The Council believes, however,

there are a number of elements to the proposed guidelines that embrace

scientifically-based and widely accepted views on effective fatigue risk

management and opposes the lawsuit as filed," he added.

The seven U.S. air carriers sued the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA), claiming the U.S. aviation agency broke its own rules when it set new

enhanced standards for pilot rest times last October without input from the

carriers.

The airlines filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the

District of Columbia Circuit. The air carriers said they should have had a

chance to comment on the new pilot fatigue rules that would place a financial

burden on them.

"The FAA has neither demonstrated how the rule will advance safety,

considered the potential that the rule may actually diminish safety, nor

justified the significant costs of the rule against any purported benefit," the

carriers said.

Delta Air Lines, which recently merged with Northwest Airlines, was not a

party to the lawsuit. Both Delta and Northwest have negotiated separate rules

with the FAA governing crew rest requirements on long-haul flights.

The government rules require additional rest time and longer layovers for

pilots on nonstop flights that last more than 16 hours. To comply, airlines

would have to put more pilots on those flights and provide more in-flight rest

facilities for them.

The Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents 11,500 American

pilots, termed "unconscionable" American Airlines' lawsuit opposing the enhanced

crew rest rules.

Capt. John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA

said: "ALPA strongly supports both the FAA's new ultra-long-range crew rest

requirements and the innovative approach used to develop them. When you consider

that the flight- and duty-time limits in use today were created more than 60

years ago, ultra-long-range flights become new territory for our industry. This

new territory, which includes modern science, flight schedules, aircraft

equipment, human physiology research, and travel distances, requires an

innovative approach to ensuring safety."

CAPA is a trade association comprised of over 23,000 professional pilots.

CAPA's purpose is to address safety, security, legislative and regulatory issues

affecting the professional flight deck crew member on matters of common interest

to the individual member unions. The five members of CAPA are: Allied Pilots

Association (American), Independent Pilots Association (UPS), National Pilots

Association (AirTran), Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) and the

Teamsters Local 1224 (ABX Air).