Flying Fatique

On the 18th of February, 2007 a Embraer ERJ-70 operating as Delta Connection, flying to Cleveland Hopkins Int, Cleveland Ohio landed long and crashed as it overran runway 28. None of the crew or the 71 passengers were killed. The flight originated out of Hartsfield, Jackson Atlanta airport in Atlanta. It’s there where the Captain and First Officer first met.They have never flow together and due to that, the company requires the Captain be the PIC. As reordered on the CVDR, when this was discussed, the Captain asked the first officer to act as PIC because he was feeling fatigued due to his lack of sleep the night before. The First Officer agreed even thought he too was feeling fatigued due to his busy flight schedule the day before.

After a few delays, the flight took off without incident. At the time of departure, the crew was updated to the weather at the landing airport. Even though they have had allot of snow and bad weather in the pervious hours, the airport was forecasted as clear and no snow. The two pilots anticipated and briefed for the ILS 24 approach. As they got closer to their destination, it had started snowing again and the visibility had dropped due to blowing snow. The approach controller switched the landing runway to runway 28 and told them to expect ILS and told the pilots that the glide-slope was unusable. There was some confusion why the controller called it the ILS approach if the glide-slope was unusable. The pilots never questioned the approach controller. The pilots flew the approach, landed long and ran off the runway. There where several issues contributing to the accident but the last part of the report applies to this paper.

3) The captain's fatigue, which affected his ability to effectively plan for and monitor the approach and landing; and (4) Shuttle America's failure to administer an attendance policy that permitted flight crewmembers to call in as fatigued without fear of reprisals.