Irish pilots ‘fear air crash’ due to fatigue

The Irish Airline Pilots Association said that it was concerned that the European Aviation Safety Authority was not using certain scientific recommendations on its proposed EU Flight Time Limitations. 

Irish pilots fear there could be an airplane crash in Europe due to fatigue, an Oireachtas committee was told today.

Representatives from the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA) made the comments while speaking to the Joint committee on Transport and Communications today about the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA)’s proposed new EU Flight Time Limitations for pilots and cabin crew.

Captain Evan Cullen, president of IALPA, said the association is concerned about what he described as EASA’s “failure for some time now” to consider and include its own scientific research in the proposals on flight time limitations.

He said that their overall concern is that EASA “for reasons that have never been explained” to them, “continues to ignore the recommendations of its own scientific appointees” during the process.

According to IALPA, the Moebus Report compiled by 10 independent scientists on the EASA proposal on flight time limitations concluded that the current limitations are deficient, and made 33 recommendations. He said that EASA’s proposal in return complied with just two of these recommendations. This led to EASA asking three independent scientists to review their proposal, who came up with “with similar findings”, he said.

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