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Scenarios in Pilot Fatigue
by Thomas P. Turner
From the NTSB:
During the approximately five-hour, 25-minute night instrument flight, the pilot of a Pressurized Beech Baron elect- ed not to stop at his planned fuel stop. Upon reaching the destination airport, weather conditions were 300 overcast and two miles visibility in drizzle, which were worse than the forecast. The pilot diverted to his planned alternate airport and attempted an ILS approach. Given the lack of a fuel stop, the pilot may have felt personal pressure to land the airplane as soon as possible. The airplane initially intercepted the localizer for the approach but did not intercept the glideslope. The airplane then proceeded left of course, above the glideslope, followed by a con- tinued left deviation and descent below the glideslope. The tower controller asked
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the pilot if he was still on the localizer course and the pilot replied that he was not. The tower controller then provided heading and altitude instructions in an attempt to guide the pilot onto a missed approach. The pilot acknowledged the heading instruction but failed to turn to the assigned heading or climb to the assigned altitude. The airplane subse- quently impacted a residential area about a half-mile from the runway.
NTSB probable cause: The pilot’s fail- ure to maintain control of the airplane during an instrument approach due to spatial disorientation.
It’s extremely rare for the NTSB to cite pilot fatigue as a contributing fac- tor in an aircraft accident. In most cases, NTSB investigators simply don’t have the time and budget to look into
PHOTO COURTESY OF TONY LAVAN
the pilot’s behavior patterns in the days leading up to an accident. Five and a half hours, however, is a long time to be at the controls of an air- craft only to find yourself making an approach in LIFR. It’s quite likely the pilot’s awareness was impaired at least somewhat by fatigue. Here’s another NTSB report where investigators come this close to citing pilot fatigue as a probable cause.
The commercial pilot of an E90 King Air had filed an instrument flight rules flight plan and was departing in dark night visual meteorological conditions on a cross-country personal f light. A witness at the departure airport stated that during takeoff the airplane sounded and looked normal. The airplane lifted off about halfway down runway 24, and