Resumen
Flying has always been considered as a desirable job occupation. But, what are the current demands and challenges of becoming a professional airline pilot? Is the occupation of a pilot really attractive or is it just a golden glitter? This paper looks at aspects of cumulative fatigue, pilot job demands and building of resources. At some stage and under certain conditions, when fatigue issues aggravate and work demands take over available resources, pilot burnout occurs. In safety sensitive environment such aviation, fatigue in combination with burnout symptoms will cause degraded performance and longer reaction times for critical tasks. This can lead to increased safety risks or can even be followed by detrimental consequences. The Germanwings 9525 incident indicated possible psychological threats to aviation safety and pointed at vulnerabilities within the aviation sector. Burnout identification and ability to cope with work-related stress are important but the prevention from burnout is even more important. Recognising burnout at the initial stage can be very difficult, but it becomes very obvious once the individual suffers from burnout. The knowledge and the usage of anti-burnout coping strategies are recognised as helpful and motivating to flight crews. The sky is the limit, they say. But can we, outside the legislative and prescriptive Flight Time Limitations, talk about the high exposure of airline pilots to burnout as a human factor limitation? If so, the growth of the air transport industry requires a sophisticated psychological approach and focus on the vulnerabilities of the psychological aspects of human behaviour under exhaustive and demanding working conditions.