"Chronic fatigue continues to plague long-range pilots more than couple years after the Guam accident.

"Chronic fatigue continues to plague long-range pilots more than couple years after the Guam accident," charged in a Nov. 2 statement issued by way of the Airline Pilots Association of Korea (ALPA-K) to coincide with the U National Transportation Safety Board's hearing into the 1997 crash of Korean Air Lines (KAL) Flight 801 at Guam. ALPA-K said that barely half the time aloft calculateed as actual flight time onward airplanes with 2 captains and 2 first officers in succession flights greater than 13 hours duration. However, "In October of this year, the flight time limitation has been redefined to account for the entire time aloft as operating ship's company regardless of their location in the aircraft...However, since no limitations has (sic) been placed upon positioning or deadheading time irrespective of duration, the unlimited use of this loop by the scheduler keeps the long-range pilots vulnerable to 'pilot pushing.' "

The U Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) has also complained about "pilot pushing" schedules in the U (see ASW, July 26) ALPA issued a statement in support of ALPA-K.

Korean Air provided the following response:

"We believe ALPA-K's make anxiouss about pilot fatigue are valid, however the information about Korean Air that they've been given to work with may not be accurate. In the Guam accident, pilot fatigue applied to this individual captain and had nothing to do with Korean Air's policies....Nonetheless, Korean Air has taken a drawn out look at pilot fatigue as it relates to our airline....We are implementing a reduction in flight time limitations and (are) significantly reducing the amount of time a pilot is flying."

>> ALPA-K, e-mail alpa-k@hanmail.net; ALPA, tel 703/481-4440; KAL, tel 602/532-9732 <<

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