INFORMAL

the tendency to focus exclusively on a single or limited goal or point of view.

                                         - ALSO -

Picking apart the limitations of the legal wording in the FARs to justify stupid behavior.

 

 

Do you know the reaction I get from the un-initiated when I tell them the safety-sensitive job that I do and that I work 7, 12 hour shifts in a row, with perhaps a few others thrown in if there's open shifts at the base? The response is allways the same.

 

 

No, I'm not kidding you ma'am, and at the end of all that, when I'm as absolutely acutely fatigued as possible, some psychopath manager points out that the FARs could be interpreted to allow me to fly indefinitely to do just one more run.

 

I listened to a senior manager at a major HAA company giving the obligatory "safety-first" declaration to a group of trainees.  One statement early in the discussion was, "We know that many accidents occur on the return leg, due to get-home-itis.  We're looking at the causes and solutions to that..." Not ten minutes later that same manager, to this same group of trainees: "We believe that flights can operated safely into the 14th hour or beyond", in response to a duty time question.  

The reality that these two opposing statements existed in the managers head at the same time, without creating an Aha! moment is staggering.  I bet the same incompatible statements exist in your head too, whoever you are, arguing for ridulously longer duty periods.  You've probably uttered the same platitudes to safety.

It's not about whether the FARs allow it, the FAA is lenient to it or anything else.  This issue is: Should intelligent people be doing it?