National Business Aviation Association develops fatigue-management survey

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has developed a fatigue-management survey that will be used to develop best practices regarding fatigue and crew duty issues in business aviation.

The survey was sent to flight engineers, flight technicians and flight attendants in March and closed on April 21.

Results will be revealed and discussed June 13 at the Flight Technician Roundtable, held the day before the start of the annual NBAA Flight Attendants/Flight Technicians Conference in Long Beach, CA.

The fatigue research is vital, the NBAA said, because international travel presents time challenges to flight crews.

Flight engineers and flight technicians must have powerplant and airframe certificates, but duties vary. Some positions have duties both in the hanger and in the aircraft.

“The industry seems to be evolving in the direction where one person performs a number of different jobs,” flight engineer Creighton Anderson said.

Anderson has both hanger responsibilities and works as a flight attendant.

The survey was conducted with the University of North Dakota and is the first comprehensive fatigue study since 2000. That study was conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Other topics to be discussed at the roundtable include food handling and safety, work-schedule management, and balancing flight and hangar duties.