Catching a few Zs on the clock is a bad idea. It's even worse when you're in the cockpit of a commercial airliner, which is why the National Transportation Safety Board is trying to get the Federal Aviation Administration to wake up and do something about it.

Pilot fatigue is becoming a serious problem, with exhausted pilots occasionally skidding off runways and even flying miles beyond their destination because they were asleep at the yoke. It's already caused at least one deadly crash and the NTSB says its time to intervene.

"The Safety Board is extremely concerned about the risk and the unnecessary danger that is caused by fatigue in aviation," says board chair Mark V. Rosenker. "We've seen too many accidents and incidents where human fatigue is a cause or contributing factor."

Despite the concern, the board's recommendations are vague at best and are no guarantee anything will actually happen to alleviate the problem.

The NTSB suggests the FAA develop a "fatigue management system"

that includes education programs and new scheduling procedures but falls short of requesting the FAA modify rules dictating how many hours pilots can work.

The FAA is holding a symposium next week on managing aviation fatigue and has invited representatives of the airlines, labor unions, aviation groups and scientists to discuss the problem. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown told the Honolulu Advertiser it will respond to the NTSB's recommendations within three months but said many airlines already have programs addressing the issue.

"We will take a look at the (NTSB) recommendations and move forward based on the information we get as a result of that conference," Brown said.

The fatigue-related incidents cited by the NTSB don't exactly inspire confidence in the FAA's current system. In two of them, pilots either skidded off of or overran their runway, and in another, a plane crashed into a cluster of trees on its final landing approach, killing two pilots and 11 passengers.

If those examples are troubling, then this one is downright scary: Go! Flight 1002 overshot the airport at Hilo, Hawaii by 26 miles and it took air traffic control 18 minutes to get a response from the flight crew. The NTSB says both pilots were sound asleep.

If that's not a sign that the FAA needs to do something fast, we don't know what is.

Photo by Flickr user spcummings