Pilot fatigue series (Part 1): Sleep-deprived pilots in cockpits are a ticking time bomb

Sleep. It is a basic need. An adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep to function at his or her best. Yes, those with corporate jobs will be happy to get at least six. But then in a typical corporate job, you going without sleep doesn#39;t impact others. At least, it doesn#39;t take their lives.rnrnBut when pilots go to work without enough sleep, it endangers their lives and hundreds of others whom they fly from one place to the other. Imagine this. Eighty percent of air mishaps are because of human error. And about a fifth of human errors are because of sleep-deprived fatigue. rnrnBut why are pilots going sleepless? Aren#39;t airlines and regulators concerned? These are a few of the questions that this three-part series attempts to answer.  In the first part, we look at how serious the situation is among Indian pilots.