“WE ARE ALL FATIGUED”

STUNNING ADMISSION

SAFETY THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY?

The CEO of Wizz air’s comments during the video make it very clear where his priorities lie. Is it the safety of his airlines passengers and crew or profit and damaging PR? Watch the video and come to your own conclusion.

Varadi states during the video;

.”We are all fatigued but sometimes it’s required to take the extra mile. The damage is huge when we are cancelling the flight it is reputational damage of the brand and it is the other financial damage and transactional damage because  we have to pay compensation”

Considering it is a criminal act to breach the ANO and or E.U.Ops. given the admissions made in the video, as regulators, what action will the UK CAA and EASA take against an airline that admits that ‘everyone is fatigued’.

The law could not be any simpler.

ANO  145 (2) ‘The operator of an aircraft to which this article applies must not cause or permit any person to fly as a member of its crew who the operator knows or has reason to believe is suffering from or, having regard to the circumstances of the flight to be undertaken, is likely to suffer from, such fatigue as may endanger the safety of the aircraft or of its occupants.’

E.U. Ops  3.6. ‘Operators shall ensure flight duty periods are planned to enable crew members to remain sufficiently free from fatigue  so they can operate to a satisfactory level of safety under all circumstances. ‘

£100 MILLION BONUS

WHY PILOTS ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM?

Taken From The Forthcoming “Pulling Wings from Butterflies – Tercio de Banderillas”

“Ask yourself the following question. Would you make a stand in the interests of passenger and crew safety if you knew it would likely risk your career and position that you had spent decades and tens of thousands of pounds building? A career which, at least for the first few years, meant having no money and required two jobs to survive? Would you risk your family’s financial future and the probability that you could no longer service your financial commitments? Would you risk having your good name and reputation trashed, marked as “difficult”, labelled “dishonest” and have your “integrity” challenged by the industry establishment, all for doing the right thing?
If you concluded that no, you would not take a stand because of the enormous personal ramifications, don’t feel too bad. If you are reading this book sitting on an aircraft as a passenger, it will therefore come as no surprise that the two pilots currently sitting a few feet away from you in the cockpit will have quite likely come to the same conclusion, on more than one occasion. It’s not worth the personal upheaval to do the right thing. It’s just not worth upsetting management. Now, sit back, relax and enjoy your flight”

CAA’S VIEW

Kathryn Jones is the ‘safety improvement manager’ at the CAA. According to Jones LinkedIn profile her “specialist area of knowledge is fatigue management, including flight time limitations”.
Jones stated in a BBC report “We have no evidence of significant safety concerns with regard to crew and fatigue”, adding;
“The evidence the CAA has is that the fatigue of crew is not a significant safety concern.”
An interesting view from Jones that completey contradicts the evidence. Indeed The CAA claim they have only had two reports of both pilots being asleep at the same time in the cockpit.

Compare the above statement by Jones with a survey conducted by the pilot union BAPLA. 

The BALPA survey involved 500 airline pilots. The question asked; “Have you ever involuntarily fallen asleep on the flight deck during two crew operation?” Forty-three per cent stated that they had.
They then asked, “and if yes, have you ever woken to find the other pilot asleep?” Thirty-one per cent stated that this had happened to them.   

Please note, the second book in the ‘Pulling Wings From Butterflies’ series is to be released once the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK complete their review of the case surrounding information brought to  police attention that are contained within the three book series

FOREWORD WRITTEN BY KARLENE PETITT

I am pleased to announce that the foreword for the second book in the “Pulling Wings From Butterflies” trilogy has been written by Karlene herself. 

The book is to be released once the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK complete their review of the case surrounding information brought to  police attention that are contained within the three book series

FOREWORD BY KARLENE PETITT

The year was 2016 when I first connected with Captain Mike Simkins and learned of his case that ultimately became the story on which you are about to embark. 

While these events in Mike’s life are nothing short of a legal thriller, I was not surprised at the depths that Thomas Cook management dove to sink him for refusing to operate a flight while fatigued. I was not shocked that the CAA provided management with the oxygen tanks to ensure his drowning. 

I wasn’t even stunned when BALPA stood smugly on the shore, watching the attack without assistance. However, I was slack-jawed as I read the details of this courtroom drama that paralleled a tragedy on the other side of the world, one of which I was personally involved. 

Mike’s story is not unique to the UK. Airline management is attacking pilots in the US for reporting Federal violations that impact safety, calling in fatigued, or refusing to operate an aircraft illegally. Be it a letter of warning, suspension, termination, or a fabricated psychiatric evaluation that would ground a pilot for life.

 

These events have one commonality—retaliation designed to force pilots into silent, complicit behaviour to promote profit over safety. This behaviour screams negative safety culture. 

While Captain Simkins was on one side of the world telling airline management it’s illegal to violate Federal regulations, it’s criminal to fly fatigued, and was being retaliated against for his stand on safety before profit, I was working on my PhD in aviation. 

My research identified that the aviation industry endures a negative safety culture worldwide that impacts operational safety today. Safety Culture dictates, among other things, that employees are encouraged to report unsafe events free from retaliation. 

As pilots, we are mandated to make safety our top priority utilising concepts such as threat and error management. A US Federal regulation was enacted in January of 2018—Safety Management Systems (SMS)—that made risk mitigation a Federal law. 

With all this said, how is it possible that our regulatory agencies, such as the CAA or FAA, required to protect the travelling public, are in fact, looking the other way on behalf of the airlines? Why would pilot unions such as ALPA and BALPA climb into bed with management? These questions can only be answered by understanding the concept of “normalisation of deviance”, where deviant behaviour becomes a regular occurrence.

Captain Mike Simkins had the courage to take a stand on behalf of the travelling public, and it has cost him his job and his health. His unrelenting quest to prove the non-compliance of Thomas Cook’s actions by dragging unethical management through court proceedings was only surpassed by creating a legal case that would identify the complicit behaviour of the CAA and BALPA. 

Captain Simkin’s integrity was evident in book one, Pulling Wings from Butterflies – Tercio de Varas , but his legal acumen during a trial in which he represented himself is nothing short of spectacular. His attention to detail, assessment of human nature, ability to deflect character assassination, and predict the behaviours of those on the battlefield provide for a page turning thrill. 

This is a journey of a mere mortal we call a pilot. A pilot who gave up his comfortable world to fight Goliath.

 

Karlene Petitt

Author : Normalization of Deviance, A Threat to Aviation Safety.

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