Social Media is Making Pilots Sleep Deprived: IAF Chief BS Dhanoa
He also said that a fatal accident was caused in 2013 due to this problem.
Along with its boon, social media is causing trouble for people and society as a whole. Pilots at the Indian Air Force (IAF) are the latest to face problems due to overusing social media. Spending long hours on social media is making them sleep deprived. With many of them spending time on social media during the night, they have less time to sleep.
According to a report in The Times of India, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa urged the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) under the training command to find a mechanism or technology that can identify pilots who have not had enough sleep before their flights. Dhanoa said that while social media has become an important part of communication today, it is taking away people's interpersonal communication skills.
During the 57th Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine conference, Dhanoa said, "Earlier if a pilot had one drink too many, the barman would know. If he failed to notice, the others would know and he did be laid off flying for the day. Today we even have breath analysers. We need a system today that can tell us if a pilot had been sleep deprived."
He also said that a fatal accident was caused in 2013 due to this problem. Urging them to find a solution, Dhanoa said, "Everybody seems to get on social media late, it then keeps them awake. Flying sorties when the ambient temperature goes beyond 40-degree celsius is discouraged so most of them take off early in the day. This means that most flight briefings are as early as 6 am and pilots haven't had enough sleep."
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 14, 2018 05:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).