Fatigue

A federal investigation into the deadly crash of a Colgan Air twin-engine turboprop near Buffalo, N.Y., this year is raising broad questions about the flight training and working conditions for pilots at regional airlines across the country. A National Transportation Safety Board hearing Wednesday in Washington revealed that the pilot and co-pilot of the ill-fated plane were low-paid, had to commute hundreds of miles to work and probably were fatigued as they made the evening flight Feb.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was released from the hospital and doing well after suffering a seizure during an inaugural luncheon. Kennedy's office confirmed that the Massachusetts Democrat left Washington Hospital Center, where he had stayed overnight for observation, and was resting at home. Kennedy, 76, has been treated for a brain tumor since last spring. Doctors blamed fatigue for the seizure he suffered during the Capitol Hill luncheon Tuesday after he had attended the swearing-in of President Obama.

You'd think doctors would understand what it's like to be physically wiped out, what with those exhausting, 36-hour hospital residency shifts most were forced to pull in medical school. But there's plenty they don't know, particularly about the unrelenting tiredness that many cancer patients suffer day after day. Physicians and nurses throughout Los Angeles are finding that out this week in a mobile "fatigue simulator" making the rounds of local hospitals. The $1.

Stuck with a boss or co-worker who is not only unimaginative and forgetful but, to top it off, cranky and humorless too? Don't despair. The situation might be at least partly correctable. The main problem afflicting your boss or colleague--or even you--could be chronic sleep deprivation. So say sleep experts such as James B. Maas, a Cornell University psychology professor, business consultant and author of the new book "Power Sleep."

Brent Hershman, an assistant camera operator on "Pleasantville," a modestly budgeted comedy for New Line Cinema starring Oscar nominees Joan Allen and William H. Macy, had put in a grueling 19-hour day on the Long Beach set of the film. The father of two small children, Hershman was headed for his West Hills home about 2 a.m. on March 6, exhausted from the day of filming that had started at 6:30 a.m.

To gain an edge, a New York mutual fund manager has a fax at the foot of his bed, its beep rousing him from sleep as it spits out opening and closing price stocks in Tokyo, London and Hong Kong. (He spares his wife by sleeping in headphones.) * Mothers set up offices at home to maximize time with their children, rising early and going to bed late to complete their tasks.

Once upon a time, there was a U.S. team that was so wonderful, everyone called it the Dream Team. Its games were romps. Its players were superstars. Opponents asked them to pose with them for pictures after they were routed by them, even Charles Barkley, who elbowed a reedy Angolan and pleaded self-defense, saying, "I thought he had a spear." Those were the days -- all 15 of them between the opening and closing of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

CAN we once again dispense with the over-analyzing and the over-theorizing about television, this time when it comes to the declining numbers for "24" and What It All Means ["Some '24' Fans Call It a Day," by Scott Collins, April 30]? Ain't got nothing to do with fatigue or politics or demographics or bad guys. Doesn't even have to do with the ol' essay-question chestnut known as 9/11, pulled out of the pundit drawer once a week since 2001 to explain everything from How We Feel to What We Eat. The "24" ratings are dragging because the current season stinks!

A tired air traffic controller directed a departing airliner onto a Los Angeles International Airport runway where another jet was about to land, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report on an incident 1 1/2 years ago in which disaster was avoided by a pilot's quick action.

Los Angeles Police Officer Joe Dewey protects and serves the residents of North Hollywood Division three days a week, 12 hours a day, which means more days decompressing aboard his boat at Lake Havasu. Devonshire Division patrolman Stephen Knight, who has the same schedule, spends some of his extra days off on the soccer field, coaching his 8-year-old son's team, the Green Hawks. "I love it. I love that I get to spend more days with my family," Knight said.