| GOL, the Intelligent Airline, with headquarters in São Paulo in Brazil, and operating some 143 Boeing 737s, just recently decided to enhance their crew planning process by acquiring the Boeing Alertness Model (BAM).
"We decided to go with BAM in order to get away from repeatedly tearing up our planning results at the end of our process. We realized that keeping adding rules was not the way forward for us", says Daniel Cortez, Head of Analytics & Scheduling at GOL. "Instead, we needed to have good incentives built into the planning process itself. We now expect to both reduce our planning times quite a bit, whilst also addressing the risk much more precisely and in balance with other planning objectives", he concludes.
"We are moved and proud to see GOL select us for FRM. Jeppesen and GOL share a long history in crew planning, and it is satisfying to see that BAM will now also be part of their setup", says Jaime Castelblanco, Regional Sales Director at Jeppesen. "We look forward to working with the tremendously competent team at GOL on implementing this solution in the coming weeks", he concludes.
The Boeing Alertness Model is unique in the ability of guiding crew planning optimizers in real-time, producing results with much lower overall risk compared to what can be achieved manually. Read more about the secret behind pro-active risk reduction here.
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| Well over a decade after first being launched, the Jeppesen CrewAlert app remains the undisputed mobile trailblazer for managing crew fatigue within aviation. CrewAlert, used by crew and FSAGs around the world, was just recently updated on the Apple Appstore.
Did you know that it is now possible to shoot a QR-code with the regular camera to automatically load your roster data or a scenario into the app? You are welcome to give it it a try with the QR code provided in the picture, leading to the modeling of the Mangalore accident back in 2010. Can it get much easier?
CrewAlert is the leading FRM app for Appstore since more than a decade ago, and contains functionality supporting fatigue reporting, data collection, modelling of what-if scenarios, analysis, and provides guidance for fatigue risk prevention and mitigations. CrewAlert is free on appstore but certain ’pro features’ will require a subscription - for a moderate fee.
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Fedex 1170 landing on the wrong runway
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| Safety investigators stated pilot fatigue was a factor why a FedEx plane landed on the wrong runway after an overnight cargo flight last year. The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilots failed to recognize cues that they were heading for the wrong runway because of fatigue, the early-morning timing and an increased workload.
Petter Hörnfeldt, better known to his followers as the Mentour Pilot, recently posted about the incident in a video also containing some generally good information about fatigue risk in aviation. Enjoy!
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| A recent highlight, in the world of operational research and optimization, was the annual gathering we refer to as COW - the Crew and fleet Optimization Workshop. On 19-20 September, around 100+ experts within Boeing met up in Gothenburg for a two-day agenda packed with presentations on the latest research and breakthroughs in the field.
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| We met up with Emily Curry, Product Owner and Optimization Expert at Jeppesen in Gothenburg, to ask her a few questions about the event:
Emily, why is this workshop important?
- COW has become something of a focal point for our OR experts in Boeing world-wide. This year we had experts from seven different sites attending. By facilitating for meeting up and sharing details about their research, we create a space for inspiring discussions that elevate each other’s insights and ideas. The feedback we receive tells us it is a very energizing highlight each year that is much appreciated. The interactions during breaks and evenings are perhaps just as important as the presentations. This year we had 17 presentations, all of excellent quality and some of them quite thought-provocative.
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| Is it possible to point to any trends or highlights?
- There was good interest and discussions around solving day of operation disruptions in new novel ways using machine learning and optimization in combination. Then, what always amazes me, is the continued efforts and results in improving pairing and rostering optimization capabilities and performance. Even now, some +30 years after first coming into use, there is still algorithmic advances possible with tangible improvements that enables taking on bigger and more complex problems such as optimizing across resources or for evolving rules.
Great to hear. Congrats to a well-run event. Looking forward to next year!
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Risk of getting a fatigue report, or risk of having an accident?
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| Risk management is about dealing with probabilities, hazards, unwanted consequences, and barriers. The ultimate unwanted consequence we try to avoid is crew fatigue being a contributing factor to an accident. It’s good to be reminded of that now and then. It is not the risk of getting another fatigue report.
Imagine two flights: A and B. The crew on flight A performs a daytime landing at home base and are predicted (by a bio-mathematical model) to be at KSS 7.5 at top of descent. The fatigue model predicts, let's say, that the pilots have been ‘low’ on alertness for many hours during this weekly flight and there’s also quite a few fatigue reports. The crew operating the daily flight B on the other hand, which is a much shorter flight, predicts at KSS 7.4 (slightly better) but the crew performs night landings with a difficult approach into Nice.
Now, when it comes to crew scheduling, the phase during which it is decided what other flights and activities precede these two flights, should we put more focus on improving the context for flight A or flight B? Are you addressing fatigue risk effectively today?
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The Jeppesen FRM News Flash reaching 100th issue
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| So, with this issue of the FRM NewsFlash we have already reached triple digits. Since we started to inform about the latest in aviation fatigue risk management, more than a decade ago, we have managed with fair regularity to publish this newsletter with a few weeks between - and this #100!
If you enjoy being a subscriber, please don't hesitate to pass this email on to colleagues. There's a signup link further below (as well as an opt-out link). We have every intention of keeping up our work to incite new thinking, informing about events and research results, as well as inspire in search of excellence. Hopefully, for another 100 issues to come. :-)
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Meet up with our experts:
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NOV 6-8: Jeppesen Crew&Fleet Connect Users' Conference, Washington D.C.
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| Missed out on the previous NewsFlash? It's right here.
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