ABSTRACT
On 12 February 2009 a regional airliner operated by Colgan Air crashed into Clarence Centre, a residential neighbourhood near Buffalo, New York State. Fifty people died. Flight 3407 was operated on behalf of Continental Airlines. The primary cause of the accident was the Captain’s incorrect response to a stall warning. It is likely that flight crew fatigue, induced by longdistance commutes to work and exacerbated by Heath-Robinson sleeping arrangements, played some part in the crew’s degraded performance.1 The Captain commuted to Newark from Florida. The First Officer commuted to Newark from Seattle, via Memphis. Neither crewmember had accommodation at Newark. Following the accident some commentators claimed the low wages paid by the regional airline sector had helped create a cadre of impoverished, residentially dislocated pilots who spent much of their between-duty time commuting to and from work (a recipe for acute and chronic fatigue). This chapter uses actor-network theory (ANT) and discourses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) to explore the social, economic and political dynamics of the airline industry. The work of Beck (Risk Society) and Reason (latent error/ resident pathogens) is also referenced. The analysis is holistic and inclusive. It acknowledges that aviation is subject to numerous pressures (like fuel price
fluctuations, regulatory initiatives, competition for passengers/freight and customer preference). The chapter aims to produce safety-enhancing policy recommendations that are practical and affordable. Parallels are drawn between the Buffalo accident and a 2009 near-miss event in Europe that featured a similar fatigue-inducing long-distance commute to work (the aircraft involved belonged to a UK-registered logistics airline). It is suggested first, that for safety’s sake the lifestyle issues foregrounded by the Buffalo accident must be addressed, and secondly that, as demonstrated by the near-miss, such issues are not confined to North America.
