On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued recommendations to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) focused on sleep apnea and crew and operator safety.
Two days later — last evening — an incident took place aboard a plane heading from San Diego to Minneapolis-St. Paul that may underscore the need for those sleep apnea tests in all commercial operators.
Northwest Airlines flight 188 flew 150 miles past the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport — where it’s passengers thought they would be landing.
It was no laughing matter to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Federal officials said the pilots told them they became distracted, and another, yet similar version is that they had been engaged in a heated discussion over airline policy.
In either case, the pilots either did not hear or intentionally ignored calls from air traffic controllers. Military jets were on standby to track down the jet after it dropped out of radio communication for about 75 minutes. It was feared the plane had been hijacked.
Once the pilots resumed contact with air traffic controllers, they were forced to make a series of maneuvers to ensure the pilots, not hijackers, actually had control of the plane. In the end, the plane landed 23 minutes late.
The FAA and the NTSB will be reviewing the black box and the cockpit voice and data recorder over the next few days. With that information, investigators will be able to definitively say whether the pilots were, as they said, debating company policy, or if they did fall asleep, as some in the industry have speculated.
In August, the NTSB issued several recommendations concerning the February 13, 2008, incident involving two pilots for Go! Island Hopper Airlines who fell asleep on a flight between two Hawaii islands and flew 26 miles past its landing site, the airport at Hilo.
Among the recommendations is to change the medical certificate application to specifically ask if the airman has sleep apnea and to identify high risk individuals.
According to the safety recommendation, studies have concluded that the go! airlines flight, operated by Mesa Airlines, was not an isolated incident.
Information in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) shows that from 1995–2007, there were at least 17 reported instances of at least one pilot falling asleep and in five of those, both pilots fell asleep.
Great concern from the NTSB is about the disproportionate number of the pilot group as compared to the general population’s prevalence of sleep apnea.
It’s estimated that about seven percent of adults suffers from some form of sleep apnea. Only about 0.5 percent of pilots holding a first class medical flight certification have indicated to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that they have been diagnosed with sleep apnea.
In the case of the Go! Island Hopper Airlines captain who was falling asleep at inappropriate times, that case was related to his undiagnosed sleep apnea which causing increased daytime fatigue.
Several of the recommendation to the FAA are to:
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- Change the Application for Airman Medical Certificate to ask specific questions regarding sleep apnea.
- Develop and utilize a program to identify those who may be susceptible to sleep apnea to be evaluated and treated before granting an unrestricted medical certificate.
- Conduct research on fatigue of short–haul operations.
- Require short-haul operators to modify operations based on recommendations provided by the research identified by the above recommendation #3.
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