NEW DELHI: To improve flight safety as well as the health of cabin crew, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has proposed changes in the flight duty time limitations for crew after seven years. The emphasis on providing rest facilities for the crew on board an aircraft is a particularly significant proposal.
A month ago, the DGCA had released a draft with significant changes proposed for the cockpit crew, particularly regarding fatigue management.
The regulator’s draft, released on Wednesday, acknowledged that the cabin crew perform duties in the interest of the safety of passengers. To enhance safety of operations, the following duty time and flight limitations are released for the compliance of flight operators, it stated.
“These rest facilities need to be independent rest areas with horizontal bunks and shall provide an environment that is conducive to rest/sleep.”
The draft has called for augmenting the existing cabin crew so that an airline will have more than the minimum required crew in the aircraft. This would allow each cabin crew member to leave the assigned position for the sake of in-flight rest and be replaced by another cabin member.
The DGCA calls for “a bunk or other surface that allows for a flat or near flat sleeping position. It must recline to at least 80° back angle to the vertical and is located separately from the passenger cabin in an area that allows the crew member to control light, and provides isolation from noise and disturbance.”
It has also called for the provision of a basic rest seat for the crew which would recline atleast 40 degrees from the vertical, provides leg and foot support and is separated from passengers by at least a curtain to provide darkness and some sound mitigation, and is not adjacent to any seat occupied by passengers.
The draft also proposes to stretch the night break from midnight to 6 am instead of 5 am, which was a long-pending request from the cabin crew.
“Cabin crew shall neither be detailed nor undertake any flight duty between periods embracing 0000 to 0600 hrs local time for two consecutive nights except once within a period of 168 hours (a week),” it said.
Calling upon airlines to provide adequate opportunity for rest and ‘night time’ sleep to each cabin crew, the DGCA them to avoid the combination of long duty periods with minimum rest period in planning patterns and plan sufficient rest periods after long flight duty periods.
The draft proposed an increase in rest periods for specific categories. It has proposed to increase the minimum rest period before undertaking a flight duty period upto 18 hours if the flight crosses three time zones. Currently, it is 14 hours.
The crew must be free to report if they feel 'fatigue'. It should not be punitive and must be confidential. These reports and the action taken on them need to be preserved for a year to be produced if the regulator requests it.
Airlines have been given time till November 14 to send their responses to the proposal.
