The Risk of Putting Profit Before Passenger Safety: A Pilot’s Perspective on Flying Fatigued

A pilot who was suspended after refusing to fly a plane while he was tired said airlines are putting profit over safety. 

Mike Simkins served as a senior captain at Thomas Cook Airlines. He made a bold decision to decline flying an aircraft with over 200 passengers due to his fatigue.

He had worked over the maximum duty period of 12-and-a-half-hours – a metric which is in place to reduce the risks associated with fatigue in pilots.

After a string of early starts and a flight which took longer than the maximum duty period, he said he would not be able to fly the following day.

Despite this being the first time he had refused a duty in his 16 years at the company, he was suspended in May 2014.

More than a decade and a successful employment tribunal later, he hopes to raise awareness of ‘major failings’ in the aviation industry.

Now working as a flight safety specialist, the 64-year-old expressed to MailOnline that safety should be the top concern in the airline sector, challenging the current approach.

He highlighted the concept of “tombstone safety,” emphasizing that real changes are often only made following a tragic incident within the aviation industry.

Mike Simkins was working as a senior captain for Thomas Cook Airlines when he refused to fly a plane carrying more than 200 people on account of his lack of sleep

Despite this being the first time he had refused a duty in his 16 years at the company, he was suspended in May 2014. Mr Simkins is pictured with air crew in Rome

Mike claimed nobody would take notice of the issues he raised, such as airlines exceeding the maximum duty period and pilot fatigue, until he published his first book (pictured)

In a study of major aviation accidents from 2001 to 2012 it was found that 23 per cent of accidents were attributed to fatigue – two per cent more than in 1980.

The study also found that up to 91 per cent of commercial airline pilots admitted to feeling fatigued regularly while flying.

Thomas Cook’s fatigue monitoring software showed that because of the run of duties Mr Simkins had done, if he had flown his flight he would have landed at the end of his duty with a predicted performance loss that would have been similar to being four times over the legal alcohol limit for flying.

After winning the employment tribunal in January 2016, Mr Simkins turned to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which regulates airlines.

He claimed nobody would take notice of the issues he raised, such as airlines exceeding the maximum duty period and pilot fatigue, until he published his first book.

He said: ‘Now I am the person pilots come to because they don’t trust the aviation industry. 

‘It’s a ridiculous state of affairs when pilots can’t trust those who are supposed to hold the airlines to account. 

 ‘The reality of the state of the industry is, if you watch any expose documentary about aviation, you’ll find there are pilots willing to talk, but they’ll always do it anonymously.

Mr Simkins said: ‘My story is one that the aviation establishment don’t want telling and that pilots and cabin crew are too frightened to tell.’ His book is pictured 

 ‘Pilots know full well they won’t get any support from the CAA if they stand up like I did and say it’s not safe to fly.

‘They’ll end up like a situation like I’m in. At the end of the day, I stood my ground. 

‘Yes, it meant I’ll no longer fly, but now I get to work with airlines who actively want my input to make them safer.’

This comes as last year MailOnline reported a Batik Air plane in Indonesia went off track on it’s flight path after both the pilot and the co-pilot fell asleep for nearly half an hour.

It was reported that one of the pilots had not rested adequately the night before the flight.

About half an hour after the plane took off, the captain asked permission from his second-in-command to rest for a while and he said yes.

The co-pilot took over command of the aircraft but then fell asleep himself. 

Mr Simkins said airlines not caring enough about pilot safety has a huge knock on effect on passengers. 

Mr Simkins said airlines not caring enough about pilot safety has a huge knock on effect on passengers. Pictured: A Thomas Cook plane flying over Greenland 

 ‘There’s no doubt flying is the safest form of transport,’ Mr Simkins said.

‘That is because of the structures that have been put in place over the last 50 to 60 years, and so for several years that structure has been pretty solid. 

‘But if you imagine a Jenga tower, the airlines are taking away blocks to cut costs, such as increasing the number of hours pilots can fly and cutting staff.

‘That’s been happening for years and years and the tower is starting to collapse.

‘You can see this in the number of accidents happening in the past few months.

‘These incidents have been happening for several years now but they’ve been getting away with it. 

‘There are hundreds of cases of pilots falling asleep in the cockpit but they aren’t publicised.  

‘My story is one that the aviation establishment don’t want telling and that pilots and cabin crew are too frightened to tell.’ 

This comes at a challenging time for the industry as low-cost airline Ryanair has slashed its passenger forecast once again, blaming aircraft delivery delays from Boeing.

In November Rachel Reeves confirmed in her Budget that the government would hike air passenger duty by £2 to £16 for the standard rate or £32 for a return journey between two airports within the UK.

As air travel is made more expensive it is likely airlines will attempt to cut costs in other areas.

Thomas Cook Airlines collapsed in 2019.