Pilot stress and fatigue are two major factors that impair aviation safety. Stress stems from job pressures and unstable work environments, while fatigue results from extended duty times, disrupted sleep schedules, and long-haul or night flights. Studies have linked life stresses, work stresses, and fatigue to reduced pilot performance and increased risk of aircraft accidents. Aviation regulators have imposed flight and duty time limits to address fatigue, but pilots and crews continue calling for reforms to further improve safety.

2. Two of the most prevailing
reasons why aviation safety is
impaired are pilot stress and
fatigue. Research has shown that
pilots are under increased stress
when they perform their
duties, which makes their job one
of the most stressful.

3. Work-Stress and Its Effects on
Pilots
Work-stress is a major reason
why pilots demonstrate
reduced task performance. A
study conducted by
Little, Gaffney, Rosen, &
Bender, in 1990 indicated
that US civilian pilots are
under greater work-stress
when they worked for
unstable airlines.

4. Life-stress and Effects on
Pilots
The findings of a survey that took
place in 1980 and analyzed aircraft
accidents from 1977-1978, showed
that those pilots that had: marital
problems, financial problems, a death
in the family or close social
circle, troubles with
peers/subordinates/superiors or made
an important decision in regards their
future, were more likely to cause an
aircraft accident (Alkov and
Borowsky, 1980 p.860-2).

5. “the state of tiredness that is
associated with long hours of
work, prolonged periods without
sleep or
the requirement to work at times
that are out of synch with the body's
biological or circadian rhythms”

6. • Fatigue due to extended flights/ flying after
a workday.
• Night/late afternoon flight.
• Boredom due to low workload/monitoring
role.
• Exhaustion from continuous/enhanced
workload.
• Physical environment (low/high
temperature, low/high pressure, humidity
levels, noise, turbulence).
Pilots cannot be on duty
more than 16 hours at a
stretch or at the controls
more than eight, and they
must get an eight-hour
break between shifts.
(abcnews.go.com).

7. Decision Making
Baradell and Klein (1993), who claim that stress alter the
regular autonomic reactions, like respiration and heart
rate (p. 267). When autonomic reactions increase, it
draws the pilot’s attention away from anything else.
Performance
Attentional deficits have long been recognized to be the
common cognitive thread of sleep loss effects... To the
extent that this is true, it seems reasonable to posit that
all cognitive tasks eventually will show impairment during
sleep loss

8. On May 14, 2012 more than 300 pilots and
cabin crew from all across Europe showed
their concern about the European Aviation
Safety Agency’s “proposed EU law on Flight
Time Limitations, which should be aimed
at preventing safety risks associated with
air crew fatigue” (European Cockpit
Association, 2012 p. 5). Hopefully, things
will change and people and pilots alike can
enjoy safer flights from now on.