A longitudinal ethnographic study of night-freight pilots

This paper records the lived reality of night-freight operations at a UK-registered airline. Observations were made over an 18-month period. The paper answers calls for more research into the working and living conditions of night-freight pilots. Pilots perceived numerous issues. These included cultural cleavage, terms and conditions, roster instability and the impact of night flying on physical and psychological health. Some issues (volatile rosters and deep first nights, for example) had the potential to increase operational risk. Two sub-cultures were identified within the airline: the quality-of-working-life sub-culture and competitiveness and corporate survival sub-culture. A 'paradox of control' was observed. While pilots controlled the aircraft in flight, their patterns and conditions of work were decided by roster managers, crewing officers and other office-based technocrats. Technocrats' directive power was resented by some pilots. Some claimed that technocrats did not understand the lived reality of the line, resulting in 'uninformed' decisions that augmented operational risk. The study involved a single airline. No claims are made for the generalisability of the findings. More studies are required.