Physician removed forcibly from United flight after overbooking--UPDATED

[jberryhill]

351. Is that really a serious question?

Being a passenger by plane (for one hour) or car (for five hours) has a remarkable difference in TIME THEY HAVE BEEN AWAKE SINCE LAST SLEEPING.

https://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=13272

10-hour minimum rest period.The rule sets a 10-hour minimum rest period prior to the flight duty period, a two-hour increase over the old rules. The new rule also mandates that a pilot must have an opportunity for eight hours of uninterrupted sleep within the 10-hour rest period.

Do you know what "uninterrupted sleep" means?

A pilot cannot be driven for more than two hours and then pilot an aircraft (if you work out the math).

In other words, let's start with a pilot who just woke up from eight hours sleep, right now. That pilot can get into a cockpit and fly a plane, but only within a two hour window. If that pilot has been awake for more than two hours, that pilot is not going to be flying an airplane.

So, no, you cannot drive a pilot more than two hours - under the best case scenario - and have that pilot fly a commercial aircraft.

The upshot of that rule is that when weather, illness of other crew, etc. play havoc with the scheduling (as it did with the thousands of flights cancelled last week), the airline ends up with a mad scramble to find crew that just woke up from eight hours and get them to places where they don't have a similar crew.