Congressional leaders pressed FAA officials at a hearing yesterday for data on how many pilots skip sleep the night before a flight. Pilot fatigue has become a "hot button" issue after the National Transportation Safety Board found this month that the Feb. 12, 2009 crash by Pinnacle Airlines Corp.’s Colgan unit near Buffalo (which killed 50) was caused when the captain’s faulty response to a cockpit warning put the aircraft into an aerodynamic stall, and that the pilots' performance was likely impaired by fatigue due to lack of adequate sleep prior to the flight.
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