Risk of Fatigue Among Airline Crew During 4 Consecutive Days of Flight Duty

Acute and cumulative effects of scheduling on aircrew fatigue in ultra‐short‐haul operations

“…Some support is found in the study by Goffeng et al. (2019), which did not find any change in Samn‐Perelli fatigue scores or reaction time after 4 days of around 40 h of duty time. On the other hand, the same study found an impairment in reaction time performance with a higher number of sectors during the four‐duty day period (range 10–20 sectors).…”

“…Despite the absence of previous work on cumulative effects on fatigue, the lack of association (Table 4, model 1) between fatigue and accumulation of duty time, number of sectors and block time was somewhat unexpected. Some support is found in the study by Goffeng et al (2019), which did not find any change in Samn-Perelli fatigue scores or reaction time after 4 days of around 40 h of duty time. On the other hand, the same study found an impairment in reaction time performance with a higher number of sectors during the four-duty day period (range 10-20 sectors).…”

“…The results on sectors contrast with the findings of Powell et al (2007), who found that the number of sectors remained a significant predictor of fatigue after adjustment for several schedule characteristics, but sleep was not included in that study, which may have been crucial. Goffeng et al (2019) did not find a link between number of sectors and rated fatigue, although psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) reaction time showed a significant link. Honn et al (2016) showed in an experimental simulator study that the number of sectors (5 vs. 1) had a modest, but significantly, increased effect on KSS and Samn-Perelli ratings, as well as PVT lapses.…”

“…Goffeng et al. (2019) did not find a link between number of sectors and rated fatigue, although psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) reaction time showed a significant link. Honn et al.…”

“…In addition to restrictions pertaining to the 24‐h window, the European Flight Time Limitations also restrict the total number of hours worked per work period (“week”) to 60 h. However, empirical data on the effects of accumulated duty time on fatigue are lacking, except for one study that showed that fatigue at the end of the flight duty period did not change across 4 days with 39 h of work (Goffeng et al., 2019), whereas reaction time performance increased. Apparently, the cumulative effect of duty time and similar variables seems to be an understudied possible source of fatigue in aviation.…”