Trötthet och dess betydelse för flygsäkerheten på Polisflyget

Sammanfattning: Swedish Police Air Support Unit (SPASU) is a flying unit within the Police whose mainmission is law enforcement and lifesaving missions. The unit has nine helicopters based onone of the five bases in Sweden. The crews usually consist of a pilot and a tactical flightoperator who together carry out the missions in a single-pilot system. They work day andnight 365 days a year. A high proportion of the accidents that occur in aviation havefatigue as a significant contributing or causal factor. In commercial and military aviationoperations, sleep and fatigue-related problems are well documented and several studieshave examined the prevalence of this. Corresponding investigations on other Police AirSupport Units has not been found. This study has examined the prevalence of sleep andfatigue-related problems in the crews within the SPASU. A quantitative focus with surveyswas chosen as method. A high response rate in the questionnaires has almost made this atotal survey (N = 49, 92 % of total population). The results have shown that there arecertain problems in the SPASU with staff flying under the influence of fatigue. Many alsosleep less than they need to feel totally rested and these have been overrepresented in thepresence of fatigue during flight. There is a great consensus among the respondents thatfatigue has a negative effect on performance during flight and that the risks increase. Theresults have shown differences between pilots and tactical flight operators, two shift andthree shift workers as well as between the different age categories in the study.