WORKING WEEK
flightglobal.com 22 August-4 September 2017 | Flight International | 43
Coombes believes sleep incidents are substantially under-reportedSounding the alarm on pilot fatigue
With a background in experimental psychology, Claire Coombes works as a human factors scientist for
the British Airline Pilots’ Association, researching cognitive issues that influence flightcrew performance
WORK EXPERIENCE CLAIRE COOMBES
We are also testing objective
drowsiness equipment, such as
glasses that monitor eye blinks.
What are the main challenges
with your job?
For many industry-based re-
searchers, there is strong pres-
sure to deliver immediate in-
sights to complex problems.
However, this timetable often
conflicts with the considerable
time inevitably required to con-
duct rigorous scientific investiga-
tions. A second broader chal-
lenge is that fatigue is a
prominent safety hazard, not just
in aviation, but in other transport
sectors and society generally. For
the scale of the hazard, fatigue
scientists are too few in number
and they tend to work in isola-
tion. As such, we desperately
need an independent fatigue sci-
ence advisory panel to be set up.
What do you enjoy most?
I really enjoy the intellectual chal-
lenge of dealing with novel prob-
lems, finding solutions and com-
municating this work to ensure
pilots and the public understand
the issues. However, more impor-
tantly, I feel passionate about
working on areas of safety that re-
ally matter to frontline pilots and
the aviation community. nWhat sparked your interest in
aviation?
According to my parents, our
family trips to the aptly named
Propeller Inn on the Isle of Wight,
where we watched the light air-
craft and gliders fly from Bem-
bridge airfield. Many years later,
from a professional perspective,
my interest has stemmed from
the fact that many of the leading
insights in human factors re-
search have come from military
and commercial aviation.
Tell us about your career to date.
My academic background is in
experimental psychology and
cognitive science, with particular
interest in attention, vision,
memory and decision making.
Following my Master’s degree, I
worked in clinical research for
UCLPartners, a centre for innova-
tion in public health. This led to
a strong professional focus on the
impact of stress and fatigue on
individual performance and
health in the workplace, espe-
cially in safety-critical environ-
ments. So I was really delighted
when the opportunity arose to
work in the flight safety depart-
ment of the British Airline Pilots’
Association (BALPA) as a human
factors scientist.
What does your job entail?
My primary task is to research
cognitive issues that affect pilot
performance and safe flight. Over
the last three years, the main ob-
jective has been to investigate
and develop practical guidance
on the complex scientific and
legislative issues connected with
pilot fatigue.
Why is BALPA conducting this
research into pilot fatigue?
In every survey BALPA has con-
ducted over the past decade,
pilot members have overwhelm-
ingly highlighted fatigue as the
most pressing safety concern af-
fecting their daily working lives.
The current interaction between
the legal, scientific and opera-
tional spheres on fatigue matters
is causing a great deal of confu-
sion and disagreement within in-
dustry. Indeed, the vulnerability
of the new European Flight Time
Limitations rule set is that it re-
lies heavily on scientific experts
to support its interpretation for
different operational concerns.
What has the research found?
Over the last decade, BALPA sur-
veys of UK airline pilots have
consistently revealed that 40-45% believe their abilities are
compromised by fatigue at least
once a month. Self reports of in-
voluntary sleep on the flightdeck
are high, with 56% having re-
vealed that they have involuntar-
ily fallen asleep during two-crew
operations, and of those that
have, 29% have admitted to wak-
ing up to find the other pilot
asleep. The same surveys show
substantial levels of under-re-
porting of fatigue. Set against
these self-reports, a major chal-
lenge for the industry is finding
practical, scientifically validated
ways to measure and predict the
fatigue status of pilots ahead of,
and during flight. We have fo-
cused our efforts into the bio-
mathematical modelling of fa-
tigue risk exposure associated
with different types of rosters.BALPAIf you would like to feature in
Working Week, or you know
someone who does, email
your pitch to kate.sarsfield@
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