by Capt. Paul Reuter, ECA Vice President
This summer, millions of Europeans will board planes expecting to be carried across skies by highly trained, well-rested professionals. But the blunt reality is that behind the cockpit door, many pilots are exhausted.
The flight you take from Brussels to Palma or Frankfurt to Alicante might look like a routine 2-hour hop. But it could be the third or fourth leg in a pilot’s 13-hour day – one in which they’ve had no real break, no time to leave the cockpit between flights, and barely a moment to stretch or use the bathroom. (....)