They plan to dish out 2m leaflets to travellers at 35 major airports across the continent, politely pointing out that few would knowingly board a flight if they knew the man in the cockpit could barely stay awake after a string of 14 hour days.

It is only a shame that lack of proximity to the public prevents seafarers from undertaking similar tactics, because crew fatigue on board vessels of all types should be seen as just as much a problem.

Legally speaking, the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping convention provides for a minimum of 70 hours rest a week. But there are plenty of documented cases of this provision not being observed, and known instances of continuous shifts lasting up to 17 hours.

Airline pilots of course stress the number of lives in their hands. But passenger tallies on larger ferries and cruiseships are the equivalent to several jumbo loads, and even a lowly coastal bulker could possibly smack into such vessels while the watchkeeper is nodding off.

Seafarer fatigue has been debated for over two decades, and even now, we hear tell that some more pliable flag states are arguing at the International Maritime Organization in favour of derogations “in exceptional circumstances”.

Such penny-pinching pettifoggery shames the industry. No ship should be sailing if the crew is too tired to sail it.

The risks are just too great.