Ministers urged to oppose pilot hours increase

Ministers urged to oppose pilot hours increase

Airline pilots from across Britain lobbied ministers and MPs in parliament last week in a bid to block what they believe is an unsafe plan to increase pilot flying hours across the European Union (EU). Members of the pilots' union BALPA told transport secretary Philip Hammond and other ministers that the British government should stand firm against the EU which wants to increase UK pilot flying hours above the levels deemed safe by scientists and medical experts (Risks 492). BALPA general secretary Jim McAuslan said flight safety across the world has stopped improving. With the number of flights expected to double by 2030, he said there was now a real threat that, after 50 years of steady improvement, the accident rate would start climbing again. McAuslan points to studies showing that 15 to 20 per cent of all fatal air accidents have pilot fatigue as a contributory factor and that the relative accident risk increases by three times when a pilot has been on duty for more than 12 hours and continues to increase as the duty period lengthens. 'Yet the EU now wants to bring in legislation that increases pilot flying hours,' he said. Current UK rules limit the maximum hours a pilot can operate to 10 hours 15 minutes but the EU plans to increase this to 13 hours 55 minutes. 'This is a disaster waiting to happen and we are asking the government, and indeed every MP, to oppose it. It is madness, even truck drivers' maximum is capped at 10 hours,' McAuslan added.

BALPA news release.