Fatigue - En killer - UPS

NTSB Report on 2013 UPS Cargo Plane Crash to Focus on Pilot Errors

National Transportation Safety Board Likely to Stop Short of Citing Crew Fatigue as Contributing Factor

By ANDY PASZTOR 


An investigator looks through the debris of a UPS cargo plane in August 2013 after it crashed in Alabama. Hal Yeager/Associated Press

Federal investigators on Tuesday are expected to officially conclude that pilot mistakes and deviations from company safety rules caused the crash of a United Parcel Service Inc. UPS -0.45% cargo plane in Alabama last year, according to people familiar with the probe.

But the National Transportation Safety Board's final report, these people said, likely will stop short of citing crew fatigue as a contributing factor in the accident that killed both pilots. The safety board previously disclosed the sequence of events as the widebody Airbus A300 jet plowed into a hill in August 2013 during its final approach to Birmingham.

At a hearing in February, investigators disclosed that the cockpit crew exceeded the maximum vertical descent rate for an appropriate approach, failed to verbalize critical altitude changes and violated basic safeguards by continuing the final phase of a descent using limited navigation aids even though the runway lights weren't visible.

The accident has been a flash point for debates over cargo pilot fatigue. According to reports, interview transcripts and other data previously released by the board, the plane's crew had complained about chronic fatigue in the days and hours leading up to the fiery accident. The captain told one fellow pilot that the string of late-night and early-morning shifts was "killing" him, according to investigators.

During an early portion of the accident flight, the cockpit voice recorder captured the co-pilot telling the captain that "when my alarm went off" following a rest break during the duty period, she was upset. "I mean, I'm thinking, 'I'm so tired,'" she recalled according to the transcript.

A safety board spokeswoman declined to comment.

The board still could change course at the last minute. But as of late Monday, according to one person familiar with the probe, only one of the NTSB's four members was inclined to support fatigue as a contributing factor.

The safety board hasn't been able to definitively determine how long each of the pilots slept during a predawn layover before the flight. Nevertheless, pilot union leaders and outside safety experts have urged the board to emphasize fatigue as part of its formal findings.

UPS has said that the flight-time and rest schedules of the crew complied with Federal Aviation Administration rest rules that apply to pilots flying for passenger carriers. The agency mandates less-stringent fatigue prevention rules for cargo pilots.

The February hearing also underscored lax discipline and apparent confusion in the cockpit during roughly the final two minutes of the early-morning approach. Safety experts from UPS and the plane's manufacturer testified that the crew improperly used the flight-management computer to try to set up a safe approach path. When that didn't work, they said, the captain violated UPS rules by abruptly switching to a different type of approach and then commanding the autopilot to maintain an excessively steep descent.

UPS officials testified that both of those events should have prompted pilots to initiate an immediate climb away from the airport. Instead, the crew continued the approach below the safe altitude for making such a decision.

Christopher Hart, the safety board's acting chairman, in August took the unusual step of expelling both company and pilot union representatives from the investigation, citing unauthorized public comments about fatigue-related aspects of the probe.