All the airline talk the last couple of days is about a couple of Northwest Airlines pilots that “weren’t asleep” when they overflew the destination by 150 odd miles. The guys were on a fairly short flight about half way across the US, and yet all signs other than their denials point to them nodding off at just the time their attention was needed most. It seems there is a pretty clear case for letting pilots take a nap at times while the planes are on cruise control:
International carriers including Air France, British Airways and Qantas allow pilots to nap, but sleeping while flying is prohibited at U.S. airlines by the Federal Aviation Administration. Just last month, the Air Transport Association again pressed the FAA to allow controlled cockpit napping, citing NASA research that found a mid-flight snooze significantly reduces the risks of overall pilot fatigue.
…
The NASA study begun in 1989 allowed one group of pilots flying across the Pacific to take a 25-minute nap while their co-pilots flew the planes, while a control group was required to remain awake for the entire flight. Those without the naps nodded off five times as much — including while on the approach to the airport — as those who got some sleep.
This seems a bit silly. While I don’t like the thought of my pilot sleeping while were in the air, it only makes sense that on long flights in a dark, quiet cockpit, there is a good chance that someone will doze off. You might as well plan it so that sleep when the plane is cruising along just fine rather than when it should be landing.
The whole incident leaves me wondering just how many times my pilots have fallen asleep on a flight. It is a bit unnerving to think about.
This weekend I was back in Amsterdam for the fourth time in a year to run the Amsterdam Marathon. The only problem was that I hadn’t trained. At all. I ran a lot in June, but then I spent the summer on the road. And though I wore out a pair of running shoes walking around stadiums, I hadn’t run more than 5-6 times with friends or just to see some of the towns. I am reasonably active though, so with a little help from my friend willpower (though he abandoned me for a stretch between 35 and 40 km) I pulled it off in a bit under five hours. Not an impressive time, but something I’m happy with considering the amount of preparation I put in.
Returning to work on Monday I was told just how foolhardy I was since three people had dropped dead running the Detroit Marathon the same day that I was pounding the pavement in Amsterdam. Of course at that fatality rate, the last 15 years of the Detroit Marathon has a lower fatality rate than commuting in the UK. The point is that much like you need to commute, you need to go out and enjoy life – which will always come with some risk. And personally, I’d much rather take that small risk than the risk of having a dull life. So if you’re thinking of doing something fairly ridiculous, might I recommend a major physical challenge. That’s adventure.
The world’s best current comment (Far Side RIP), XKCD, uses humour to make a good point about airline security: it’s a farce. As the Atlantic clearly demonstrated, with a little level of effort, you can get around security measures. Sometimes it wouldn’t even take effort – once this year I even cruised through and airport without a single person looking at my photo ID. But even more basic than that is that what security measures there are (take off shoes, liquids in a little bag) are simply in place because there were major news stories around people using either liquids or shoes to cause trouble. It seems that if airport security were actually interested in safety, the world would follow Isreal’s controversial model. But in the mean time, can you knock it off with the shoe thing and preventing us from carrying our own water. It’s just silly.
Ode to you mini-bar at the James Hotel in Chicago. If you be called ‘mini’ then I can only wonder what a ‘grand’ bar in a hotel room would look like. You were stocked with five bottles of high quality spirits, a fridge full of mixers and other liquors, and all the equipment necessary to mix and enjoy any cocktail imaginable. Yes, your prices were high, but you’re a “mini-bar”. But comedians need fall back jokes, and if you weren’t expensive and airlines didn’t serve peanuts, then what would they joke about? The greatest shame was that I couldn’t take advantage of your bounty. I was in Chicago for work, and lacked the opportunity to imbibe you delicious nectar. Next time James mini-bar. Next time.
I’m pretty excited that Rio is hosting the Olympics, if only because their pitch video really made me want to go explore Brazil. Of course the video doesn’t show the crushing poverty that encircles Rio, but if you’re going to make an idyllic video I suppose you can’t tell the whole story of a place. Though maybe the real reason that I wanted them to win was it was the only finalist city that I’ve never visited, and was looking for another excuse. Guess I’ve got it now!
