[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/09/faa.gi.art.jpg caption="An FAA-assembled advisory committee has recommended that the FAA endorse "controlled cockpit napping.""]
By Allan Chernoff
CNN Sr. Correspondent
"This is your pilot speaking. It's time for my nap."
While you won't hear that announcement, next year it could be exactly what's happening in the cockpit of your flight at 35,000 feet!
A Federal Aviation Administration-assembled advisory committee, representing airlines and pilots, has written to the administration, to "recommend that the FAA endorse controlled cockpit napping." A "controlled nap" would last for no more than 40-minutes to prevent pilots from falling into a deep sleep.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt is now considering the Aviation Rulemaking Committee's recommendation, as he searches for ways to address the problem of pilot fatigue. For 19 years fatigue has been on the National Transportation Safety Board's "Most Wanted" list of urgent safety issues that need to be addressed.
Watch: Cockpit napping endorsed 
"It is beyond overdue. It is needed right now. We can't wait another year," said NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman.
NASA studied the idea of pilot naps at its Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California 20-years ago. The Fatigue Countermeasures Group, known within NASA as the "Z Team", found flight deck naps to be effective and safe in reducing pilot fatigue.
"The FAA paid for that research and we've shown very clearly the nap really improved performance and alertness of the flight crews," said Curt Graeber, who led the "Z Team" of scientists and is now a fellow of the Flight Safety Foundation.
"The most risky part of the flight, in terms of safety, is the approach and landing. So we want crews to be well rested and alert on the approach and landing. The idea of a controlled rest in the flight deck helps make that happen – it's a safeguard," said Graeber.
Indeed some foreign carriers, including British Air and Air Canada, permit pilots to nap on longer flights, allowing one pilot to rest in the cockpit, while the other pilot mans the controls.
"The irony is that these studies were paid for by the U.S. taxpayer and they were adopted by airlines worldwide, except in the United States," said Dr. Gregory Belenky, director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University.
(Foreign and domestic airlines have bunks available for pilots to sleep – not nap – during ultra-long flights that carry three or four-man crews to destinations like the Far East.)
Some U.S. pilots fear airline managers could use a napping-in-the cockpit rule to justify longer flight schedules for pilots.
"A pilot could be pushed to work when he's really not comfortable going to work," said Captain James Ray, a 25-year veteran of U.S. Airways. "It's not a substitute for 8-hours of sleep."
In fact, the Aviation Rulemaking Committee is recommending the FAA allow pilots to fly more consecutive hours during daytime – to increase the current 8-hour limit. In return, airlines would reduce the hours pilots have to be on-duty from the current 16-hour maximum, to offer more opportunity for a full sleep.
"The existing rules are really inadequate, said Doug Pinion, an American Airlines pilot who sat on the Aviation Rulemaking Committee. "I don't think most people who are in any position to judge alertness think it would make sense to have a pilot on duty for 15, 16 hours."
The NTSB says fatigue has caused numerous accidents and, in the case of a Mesa Airlines flight to Hilo, Hawaii, in February of 2008, caused both pilots to fall asleep and travel 26 miles past their destination.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, a former Eastern Airlines pilot, has put the issue of pilot fatigue on the fast track. He and his staff are evaluating the advisory committee recommendations, and intend to issue new proposed regulations by the end of the year.
"Pilot fatigue is one of Administrator Babbitt's top safety issues," said FAA spokesperson Alison Duquette. "Everyone involved in the process is committed to getting the rule out as quickly as possible."