Dissertation
Health and Safety in Commercial Aviation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2018
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/16355
Abstract
This dissertation includes three novel manuscripts involving research on commercial airline pilots, all written for submission to specific journals. The first manuscript, entitled The Application of Statistical Non-Inferiority to Fatigue Risk Management, introduces non-inferiority testing to Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMSs) in aviation and explains the FRMS process. Statistical non-inferiority exactly fits the question posed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as to whether a flight that does not meet the regulations is as safe as or safer than (non-inferior to) flights within the regulations. The brilliance in this statistical test is in its simplicity – with a simple plot the reader knows the answer to the FAA’s question. The second manuscript, entitled Pilot Sleep in Long Range and Ultra Long Range Flights, evaluates sleep before, during, and after two long-range (LR) and three ultra long-range (ULR) nonstop California to Australasia flights. The purpose of this study is to understand how pilots sleep and recover from sleep loss on long duration flights that cross multiple time zones with subsequent circadian rhythm desynchronization. Since sleep is directly linked to performance, looking at sleep across time in LR and ULR flights helps us to verify that flights are scheduled to ensure pilots obtain proper sleep, allowing for sustained performance. The third manuscript, entitled The Commercial Airline Pilot Health Culture, examines qualitatively the pilot health culture in the major commercial airlines and makes recommendations based on the themes that emerge from the data. This study demonstrates the utility of qualitative research in aviation by exposing a critical schism between the basic health needs of pilots and the current policy environment. Overall, each manuscript adds new, relevant ideas and data in novel applications to the current aviation literature.
Metrics
37 File views/ downloads
35 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Health and Safety in Commercial Aviation
- Creators
- Amanda Lamp
- Contributors
- Sterling M McPherson (Advisor)John M Roll (Committee Member)Gregory L Belenky (Committee Member)Kimberly A Rhoades (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Graduate School
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 79
- Identifiers
- 99900581714301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation