ABSTRACT
Fatigue and tiredness have been called ill-defined concepts that are part of everyone's life. Fatigue, or at least tiredness, has been a problem since the beginning of commercial aviation. Fatigue was first officially cited as the 'probable cause' of an accident in the National Transportation Board Report on American International Airways Flight 808 which crashed at Guantanamo Bay on 18 August 1993. In the US, thanks to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-Ames Fatigue Countermeasures Program, which is discussed later, planned in-flight naps are under serious consideration by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Fatigue is an even greater problem for long-haul pilots and for reserve or standby crews. One of the results of the NASA-Ames Fatigue Countermeasures Program has been the development of a NASA/FAA education module and which is entitled 'Alertness Management in Flight Operations'. Theoretically, governmental regulations are supposed to create conditions which control undue operational fatigue.
