SASCON'15: Fatigue Risk Management

This years’ Swiss Aviation Safety Conference – SASCON – which took place on 8th of September, was dedicated to the topic of “Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS)”.

ICAO defines FRMS as “a data-driven means of continuously monitoring and managing fatigue-related safety risks, based upon scientific principles and knowledge as well as operational experience that aims to ensure relevant personnel are performing at adequate levels of alertness.”

Fatigue affects most aspects of employee’s ability to do their job, is a major human factors hazard and has therefore implications for safety.

One of the traditional regulatory approaches to managing fatigue has been to prescribe limits on maximum daily, monthly and yearly flight and duty hours, and require minimum breaks within and between duty periods. The approach reflects early understanding that long unbroken periods of work could produce fatigue (now known as ‘time-on-task’ fatigue), and that sufficient time is needed to recover from work demands and to attend to non-work aspects of life.
The aim of this event is to promote a common understanding of “Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS)” throughout the Swiss aviation community by receiving a general and academic introduction to the topic and by sharing experiences and best practice examples of Swiss aviation operators and representatives of other fields of operation (medicine).