FC5415 - Insufficient crew food provided
Initial Report
Regularly the food supplied by [Airline] is not sufficient for the length of duty. For example, my last duty started at 0500 UTC and finished at 1430 UTC, representing 9.5 hours of duty time. The food supplied for that duty per pilot were:
1 x Oat Burst porridge pot
1 x Croissant or Pain au chocolate
1 x penguin chocolate bar
1.5 x apples
Plus 1 extra pack of 3 biscuits to share.
This effectively needs to cover a breakfast and lunch period and is insufficient calories for the length of time.
The crew food is loaded in the morning, it often gets consumed through the day, because each crew does not have enough. Therefore, by the evening flights there is often no food at all. Our alternate procedure is to have passenger food which also runs out through the day. For my last five late shifts I was provided with nothing more substantial than a KitKat and some Pringles.
comments
CAA Comment
The medical advice is that aviation safety professionals maintain a balanced diet and follow the guidance provided in documents like the ICAO ‘Fitness to Fly’ publication, Chapter 6, Nutrition and Weight management. Individual calorie requirements are variable with males requiring about 2500 calories per day and females about 2000. The flying task is, in relative terms, towards sedentary, and the aeromedical risk is more one of overeating and obesity rather than the opposite. In–flight rations obviously stave off hunger and perhaps boredom and have their origins with high calorie, sugar rich foods provided to military aircrew. Pilots should eat and hydrate themselves to maintain a healthy weight and ensure that they are fit to carry out their duties.
CHIRP Comment
Not all airlines provide food for crew because it is not a regulatory requirement to do so, and when they do it, it is usually based on individual industrial agreements. In previous CHIRP discussions many pilots have shared their views about the poor quality of in-flight rations. CHIRP also receives reports from flight crew, working for those airlines that do provide ‘’rations’’, stating that there is insufficient hygienic storage for the food that the crew provide themselves and which is intended for the rostered duty so may be unhygienic if left in ambient flight deck temperatures. Hence, lack of refrigeration and even basic storage facilities are other common concerns from our reporters.