Bill would require cargo aircraft to follow pilot rest requirements
Washington – The House on April 16 introduced legislation that would require new pilot rest period regulations to include cargo aircraft pilots, who previously were exempt.
The Safe Skies Act (H.R. 4350), introduced by Reps. Chip Cravaack (R-MN) and Tim Bishop (D-NY), would hold cargo aircraft pilots to the following updated rest period regulations:
- Maximum flight duty time will decrease to between 9 to 14 hours.
- Minimum rest period will increase to 10 hours, with a mandate that pilots must receive eight hours of uninterrupted sleep within that time period.
- Pilots must have at least 30 consecutive off-duty hours weekly, compared with the previous 24-hour minimum.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s final rule (.pdf file) was finalized Jan. 4 and is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 14, 2014.
Post a comment to this article
Safety+Health welcomes comments that promote respectful dialogue. Please stay on topic. Comments that contain personal attacks, profanity or abusive language – or those aggressively promoting products or services – will be removed. We reserve the right to determine which comments violate our comment policy. (Anonymous comments are welcome; merely skip the “name” field in the comment box. An email address is required but will not be included with your comment.)