New EU rules could mean ‘more tired pilots’: are passengers at risk?

New European rules that could allow pilots to land planes after 22 hours without sleep could put passengers’ lives at risk, the UK pilots’ union, Balpa has warned.

Balpa and some pilots are concerned about EU rules on pilots’ working conditions, if introduced in the UK, which has strict rules governing their working hours.

The union claims that many pilots can struggle to stay awake, even under the current UK rules, which limit a pilot’s working hours to just over 16 hours.

According to Balpa, almost half of the 500 members it surveyed admitted to falling asleep in the cockpit and that a third of these pilots said they had woken to find their co-pilot asleep.

The new EU rules, it says, could lead to “extremely fatigued pilots.”

Concerns over flying hours

Balpa’s general secretary, Jim McAuslan said: “Compared to the UK’s domestic rules, the EU proposals would see pilots flying further – as far as California – with no back-up crew and, contrary to scientific advice, allow pilots to do up to seven early starts in a row, which is desperately fatiguing.”

The new European rules, which are designed to harmonise pilots’ working hours across the Continent – come from the EU aviation regulator, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The pilots’ union is concerned that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) – which regulates air travel in the UK – supports the proposed changes and claims they are not backed up by scientific research.

Flawed research

Richard Toomer, Balpa spokesperson told Terminal U: “Fundamentally these rules were flawed from the start because they were not drawn up by scientific experts in the field. There were no medics, no sleep scientists on the group who came up with them. So, ideally, we think it would be best to throw them out and start again.

“If that doesn’t happen we would need to see significant improvement to the rules before they could be considered safe.

“We need assurances from the Transport Minister that the UK would not support, and would seek to get an opt-out from, any rules which reduce safety standards here in the UK as these [rules] undoubtedly would.”

The CAA has rejected claims the EU rules would compromise passenger safety, while EASA says the proposals are based on the latest sleep science.

CAA chief executive Andrew Haines said that the study of pilot fatigue was “not an exact science” and that having one set of rules across the 27 member states would make UK travellers safer.

He added that instances of pilots staying awake for 22 hours would be “exceptionally rare”.

A CAA spokesperson told Terminal U: “Overall we now think the current proposal, together with other regulations, such as the European Work Time Directive, and our continuous oversight of airlines, provides a package that will work for Europe.

“It [the new rules] will raise safety levels across many countries whose airlines UK citizens use which currently have lower levels of regulation on pilot hours.”