See Air Safety Information Paper `ATSB Survey of Licensed
Aircraft Maintenance Engineers in Australia'.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau recommends that CASA
ensures through hours of duty limits, or other means, that
maintenance organisations manage the work schedules of staff in a
manner that reduces the likelihood of those staff suffering from
excessive levels of fatigue while on duty.
Given that "fatigue was listed as a contributing factor in just
over 12% of occurrences", CASA believes that there is clearly a
need for the appropriate regulation of this issue.
CASA has addressed the issue of hours of duty rules and fatigue
management in relation to aircraft maintenance engineers in the
proposed Civil Aviation Safety Regulations Part 43 -Maintainers
Responsibilities and Part 145 - Approved Maintenance Organisations,
(CASR Part 43 and CASR Part 145).
Draft regulations for CASR Part 43 were released as a Discussion
Paper for public comment on 22 February 2001. A working draft of
the proposed regulations for CASR Part 145 was released for public
comment on 5 July 2001.
Proposed sub-regulation 145.190 requires an approved maintenance
organisation to ensure that each maintenance worker takes enough
rest as specified in CASR Part 43.
Proposed sub-regulation 43.400 (2) specifies the following in
relation to an appropriate work schedule for a maintenance
worker:
- At least 1 period of 24 hours of complete rest away from the
workplace in any period of seven days; and
- At least 10 hours of complete rest away from the workplace in any
day.
Proposed sub-regulation 43.400 (3) provides that a maintenance
worker must not continue for so long a period that the worker's
capacity to carry out the work becomes significantly
impaired.
I would like to note that the Authority has recently established a
Fatigue Management Committee to review fatigue risk management
issues, fatigue standards development and implementation.
As part of this review, the Committee will be asked to review the
fatigue regulations contained in CASR Parts 43 and 145, for
consistency against CASA's fatigue management approach.
CASA anticipates that following consideration and, if appropriate,
incorporation of comments received from interested parties,
including the Fatigue Management Committee, CASR Parts 43 and Part
145 will be released as Notices of Proposed Rule Makings for public
comment later this year.
