Flying Through the Night: A Cockpit View of Redeye Flying

It is somewhere just south of midnight. The Pacific Time Zone only shows 11:30 PM, but at home, on the East Coast, its 2:30 AM, just about the time most folks are usually deep in sleep, blankets all tucked tight, the air conditioner or heater humming gently. The airport is brightly lit, though the stores and food concessions are shut tight. Passengers stumble around aimlessly, looking for someone to take their hand and lead them to their plane. The crew starts their ritual of slamming down Red Bull and coffee, hoping that their hearts will turn over and start up, keeping them awake and alert. They have been in town 22 hours, what would normally seem like a long, even luxurious, amount of time. But that day in the city was spent trying to catch up on sleep. The red eye airplane they brought in that morning has wrought havoc on their sleep schedules. There was a delay due to weather in the departing airport, a maintenance issue, and late boarding, all leading to a late departure and even later arrival as they fly off into the night. They take off, level at altitude and finish the checklists. Now the toughest part of the trip comes: staying awake.

The flying public have long known of the term red eye, a facetious little nugget of accuracy, and usually considered it a chore to take, but one that may cut a tickets price in half or even more. The drive to the airport long after everyone has gone to bed, the early arrival after being jammed in a seat that seems to be designed with blueprints from the Spanish Inquisition, a pathetic nights sleep, bumpy weather, and a choice of snacks that rival hamster pellets, at best, are some of the harsh conditions endured for hours on end, stoically persevered all in the name of saving money and convenience. The hungover like feeling the next day, the inability to sleep your normal schedule for a day or so after, the lethargy. These will all go away in a few days or so. A few dollars were saved, though. But, what if you had to do these red eyes 2-4 times a week, or even more? What if you had to crowbar yourself out of a deep sleep in the middle of the night, dress, function normally, and then take the lives of passengers in your hands as your head lolls around and you bite your tongue to stay awake, and fly them 3-6 or even more hours to their destination? What would it be worth to you? Police do it, working midnight shifts. Other professions do it as well. But when do these professions require you to make split second decisions at 37,000 feet with just 3 or 4 hours of poor sleep, deal with violent weather, handle emergencies and get a damaged plane on the ground? It certainly takes on a different light when seen from 37,000 feet!

Airlines, seeking to make the most of flight time limitations, utilize these red eyes for profit maximization. Delays are usually at a minimum. In many instances, junior pilots, or those on the lower end of a pay scale, will be forced to fly them due to their low seniority, thus saving on pay. They are usually set up with incentives for passengers, such as lower prices, direct flights and other benefits that keep the seats full. While these make them attractive for both the passengers and companies, the toll that they take on the crews can be vicious. The continuous chaos that red eyes play on circadian rhythms has been proven to shorten life spans. The effect of lack of sleep is comparable to drinking alcohol of differing quantities depending on the length of time the pilot is awake. The range is anywhere from 0.05 to 0.8 % depending on the hours of wakefulness. These alarming figures are above the legal limit of blood alcohol content for the operation of an aircraft as set forth by the FAA... But these hours of duty also are allowed by the same agency.

With the current attractiveness of blaming pilots for most incidents involving aircraft by using the catch all term of "pilot error", the FAA and companies need to start looking at the effects these red eye schedules are having. With slowed reaction times and degraded mental acuity, these are simple recipes for disaster. Only the deeply ingrained professionalism and stellar training of pilots have kept instances of "pilot error" at all time lows. Passengers give a common response of "It is the career you chose, deal with it", knowing full well that unless that have worked the graveyard shift, they will never have to fight to stay awake at altitude or secure a failed engine in a snowstorm after being awake for 20 hours straight. The changes that need to take place are myriad. While red eyes may never go away, schedules that minimize the use of red eye flying need to be implemented. Adequate rest periods, not just the FAA mandated periods, need to be added into schedules. A limit of how much flying can be done after a red eye flight has to become standard issue. The trips from the West Coast, through Central America and on into the East Coast, starting in the late evening, force a crew to be awake from the day prior until mid day the next, often flying into foul weather, poorly controlled airports in heavily mountainous terrain dotted with volcanoes, language barriers and the beautiful rising sun as they set off to the final destination on the East Coast. The glamour that people associate with the life of a pilot is nothing more than a Red Bull and caffeine fueled blur at that point. That is a tough life to ask anyone to live.