Pilots question Transport Canada's stance on new fatigue guidelines

Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
November 20, 2009

Airline pilots say Transport Canada didn’t provide the whole picture when it told the international aviation safety body that 13-year-old Canadian standards to combat pilot fatigue meet new global rules.

Photo by: Todd Korol

OTTAWA — Airline pilots say Transport Canada didn't provide the whole picture when it told the international aviation safety body that 13-year-old Canadian standards to combat pilot fatigue meet new global rules.

The new directive for countries to have regulations to set flight and duty time limits and rest requirements for pilots based on science came into effect on Thursday — the same day Transport Canada sent a letter to the International Civil Aviation Organization saying that current rules in Canada satisfy the new requirement.

The Montreal-based United Nations body required signatory countries, including Canada, to file official "differences" by Thursday informing the group if the country wouldn't be able to comply.

"Canada has not filed a difference because current Canadian regulations are consistent with the ICAO's Standards and Recommended Practices (SARP)," Transport Canada said in a statement Friday.

The Canadian Federal Pilots Association, which represents pilots working at Transport Canada, and the Air Canada Pilots Association, the largest professional pilot group in Canada, both say this doesn't hold up.

Canada's regulations limiting pilot flying time, first instituted in the 1940s, were last updated with minor changes in 1996. The current federal rules do not distinguish between day-time flying and overnight flights, even though other countries acknowledge the physiological challenges of flying overnight.

The amended international standards introduce new definitions of "duty," "duty period," and "fatigue," and updates definitions of "flight duty period" and "rest period."

And "for the purpose of managing fatigue," regulations established by countries such as Canada should be based "upon scientific principles and knowledge, where available, with the aim of ensuring that flight crew members are performing at an adequate level of alertness," according to the updated international directive.

"I don't see how they can say that because to the best or our knowledge, there's no scientific basis for our duty regulations to being with. They were developed in the 1940s," Paul Strachan, president of the pilots' union at Air Canada, said Friday.

"Clearly, the body of science around this has advanced tremendously. For Transport Canada to say at this point that their flight duty regulations are consistent with the intent of the ICAO SARP — that's tantamount to saying literally that ownership of a sun dial is consistent with the intent of trying to tell time."

Strachan said other countries have updated regulations in recent years based on new research involving sleep and circadian rhythms.

"Is there a physiological difference between a Canadian pilot and an American pilot or a Kiwi pilot? No, there isn't. The data is there. Transport Canada has told us consistently that since there is no Canadian data, they can't move forward. Yet they haven't taken steps to collect any such data."

Daniel Slunder, who represents pilots working at Transport Canada as the national chairman of the Canadian Federal Pilots Association, said he's also confounded by Transport Canada's position.

He said Transport Canada meets the first ICAO test, which requires countries to have "regulations specifying the limitations applicable to the flight time, flight duty periods, duty periods and rest periods for flight crew members, but these in no way meet the second statement that they 'shall be based on scientific principles and knowledge.'"

Slunder says it's now in the hands of ICAO.

"It's not the first time Transport Canada failed to file a difference. There isn't much that anyone here can do about that. We can't force Transport Canada to file the difference, only ICAO can. ICAO will find out when it conducts its next audit of our system and then they will tell Transport to get with the program or file a difference. The issue remains that we don't meet the intent of the requirement."

When a country files a difference with ICAO, the information is shared with foreign carriers so they will know when entering that country's airspace.