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Managing Stress And Fatigue: Recommendations To The Australian Federal Committee On Air Transport Safety

In excess of 70% of all aircraft accidents are the result of human error. Two major contributors to human error are stress and fatigue. In a day and age where airlines are losing money everyday, they cannot afford to have safety concerns regarding their pilot’s abilities to fly safely. But with the added financial pressures on the airlines, it is often the pilots that are being pushed ever closer to their outer limits, physically and mentally. As a result many pilots experience symptoms of stress and fatigue.
The Pilots Job

The most common job of a pilot is to fly cargo and people to their destination. Though they can also be involved in military exercises, emergency tasks such as search and rescue, and fire fighting. In addition to just flying the aircraft, pilots have the greater task of carefully planning their flight before departure. This task has many aspects to it such as making sure the aircraft is safe to fly, deciding on the route that they should fly, check the fuel requirements, weather conditions they may encounter on their journey, and making sure that the cargo is loaded correctly onto the aircraft before departure.
Pilots find flying to be very enjoyable and to be paid to do something they love is even better. For this reason pilots are very patriotic to their chosen career. “For some people, it's the perfect job: an office that travels, a view that's constantly changing and challenges that are exhilarating.” (Freeman, 2006)
But being in control of an expensive piece of machinery and being responsible for hundreds of lives at one given time can be daunting, even stressful at times. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the hardest part of flying a plane is the take-off and landing. This is when the pilot must take the greatest care. Often a pilot will have a flight that requires them to be on duty for extended this part of the job can be very tiring and great care must be taken to watch out for symptoms of fatigue.
What is Stress and...