I think the point is being missed here. A reasonably experienced pilot (8000+ hrs) made a rudimentary error due to fatigue.
Pilots are working much longer hours with dramatically varied sign-on and sign-off times making it very difficult to have a predictable rest schedule. The transit time from staff carparks in Sydney are around 45mins each way during peak times which are not counted in any fatigue calculations. Rostered shifts can often exceed 11 hrs and delays can extend these to 13+ quite easily. Therefore, it is not unusual for there to be 15hrs from parking the car to returning to the vehicle at the end of the day. Doing this at all hours of the day and night every working day can cause mistakes such as this or potentially much bigger mistakes.
Hopefully lessons can be learned from minor incidents such as this instead of waiting for The Big One.
|