The leadership and members of this Association understand the public’s trust in our profession and hold that trust in the highest regard. It is safety that drives our craft and serves as the basis for the relationship between us and the flying public. AMFA’s credo "Safety in the air begins with quality maintenance on the ground," is derived from the objectives outlined in our Constitution where a "Safety First" approach is emphasized. Recently, fatigue has been identified as one of the factors that can cause errors and AMFA is being proactive in our response to this issue.
The Association agrees in principle with the FAA that it is more important to develop a Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS), a continuously monitored data driven system, to mitigate problems as applied to aviation and educate our members on the awareness of fatigue rather than to set a fixed number of work and/or rest hours. We believe that due to the many various human factors that contribute to fatigue situations, a rigid hour-based rule is not the best approach for a company or their maintenance personnel and will not help with current OJIs or any fatigue related issues without identifying individual problems and educating members with the solution.
We do understand that fatigue is a complex problem, and the AMFA is prepared to work with any agency or interested party to collaboratively identify potential discrepancies in current practices, and to help collectively improve the aspects of a safety management system that can best respond to the evolving safety concerns within our industry regarding maintenance personnel fatigue. We believe in and support education for our membership. The same education and awareness are key elements for any successful FRMS and there is an abundance of information from the FAA supporting FRMS development at www.mxfatigue.com and Transport Canada at http://www.tc.gc.ca. We strongly recommend that those interested seek out these resources to gain more understanding.
AMFA recognizes that maintenance personnel fatigue is a safety concern and we are looking forward to exploring this issue with interested parties to raise awareness and to educate all concerned of the benefits of a FRMS that recognizes the necessity for a cooperative approach. For further discussion on this matter, please contact the National Safety & Standards Director at (720) 744-6630.