TY - JOUR
T1 - Duty hours and incidents in flight among commercial airline pilots
AU - O'Hagan, Anna Donnla
AU - Issartel, Johann
AU - Fletcher, Richard
AU - Warrington, Giles
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute (CIOP-PIB).
PY - 2016/4/2
Y1 - 2016/4/2
N2 - Introduction. Working long duty hours has often been associated with increased risk of incidents and accidents in transport industries. Despite this, information regarding the intermediate relationship between duty hours and incident risk is limited. This study aimed to test a work hours/incident model to identify the interplay of factors contributing to incidents within the aviation industry. Methods. Nine hundred and fifty-four European-registered commercial airline pilots completed a 30-item survey investigating self-report attitudes and experiences of fatigue. Path analysis was used to test the proposed model. Results. The fit indices indicated this to be a good fit model (χ2 = 11.066, df = 5, p = 0.05; Comparative Fit Index = 0.991; Normed Fit Index = 0.984; Tucker–Lewis Index = 0.962; Root Mean Square of Approximation = 0.036). Highly significant relationships were identified between duty hours and sleep disturbance (r = 0.18, p < 0.001), sleep disturbance and fatigue in the cockpit (r = 0.40, p < 0.001), and fatigue in the cockpit and microsleeps in the cockpit (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Discussion. A critical pathway from duty hours through to self-reported incidents in flight was identified. Further investigation employing both objective and subjective measures of sleep and fatigue is needed.
AB - Introduction. Working long duty hours has often been associated with increased risk of incidents and accidents in transport industries. Despite this, information regarding the intermediate relationship between duty hours and incident risk is limited. This study aimed to test a work hours/incident model to identify the interplay of factors contributing to incidents within the aviation industry. Methods. Nine hundred and fifty-four European-registered commercial airline pilots completed a 30-item survey investigating self-report attitudes and experiences of fatigue. Path analysis was used to test the proposed model. Results. The fit indices indicated this to be a good fit model (χ2 = 11.066, df = 5, p = 0.05; Comparative Fit Index = 0.991; Normed Fit Index = 0.984; Tucker–Lewis Index = 0.962; Root Mean Square of Approximation = 0.036). Highly significant relationships were identified between duty hours and sleep disturbance (r = 0.18, p < 0.001), sleep disturbance and fatigue in the cockpit (r = 0.40, p < 0.001), and fatigue in the cockpit and microsleeps in the cockpit (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Discussion. A critical pathway from duty hours through to self-reported incidents in flight was identified. Further investigation employing both objective and subjective measures of sleep and fatigue is needed.
KW - fatigue
KW - flight incidents
KW - path analysis
KW - sleep
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84978719397&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10803548.2016.1146441
DO - 10.1080/10803548.2016.1146441
M3 - Article
C2 - 27005462
AN - SCOPUS:84978719397
SN - 1080-3548
VL - 22
SP - 165
EP - 172
JO - International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics
JF - International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics
IS - 2
ER -