Two-crew operations: stress and fatigue during long-haul night flights.

BACKGROUND: As part of a research program concerning legal aspects of two-pilot operations on long-haul routes, the purpose of the study was to investigate two-crew extended range operations during a flight roster with two consecutive night flights and a short layover.

HYPOTHESIS: Present flight time regulations may not be adequate for two-crew minimum operations.

METHODS: The study was conducted in cooperation with a German airline company on the route Frankfurt (FRA)-Mahe (SEZ). There were 11 rotations (22 flights) that were investigated by pre-, in- and post-flight data collection each time from the two pilots. Recordings included sleep, taskload, fatigue and stress by measurement of EEG, ECG, motor activity, and subjective ratings. The average actual flight times were 9:15 h (FRA-SEZ) and 9:53 h (SEZ-FRA). All flights took place at night. The layover duration in Mahe was 13:30 h during day-time.

RESULTS: During layover, sleep was shortened by 2 h on average compared with 8-h baseline sleep. The two consecutive night duties resulted in a sleep loss of 9.3 h upon return to home base. Inflight ratings of taskload showed moderate grades, but for fatigue ratings an increasing level was observed. Fatigue was more pronounced during the return flight and several pilots scored their fatigue at a critical level. Motor activity, brainwave activity (occurrences of micro-events) and heart rate indicated drowsiness and a low state of vigilance and alertness during both night flights, but these effects were more pronounced during the second flight.

CONCLUSIONS: From the findings it is concluded that a duty roster, as conducted in this study, may impose excessive demands on mental and physiological capacity.