Twenty-eight people have died in a dozen plane crashes across Canada over the past decade where fatigue was cited as a possible factor, a CBC News investigation has found.

Transportation Safety Board reports note pilot fatigue as a factor in six deadly crashes and in an additional six accidents -- including the Air France crash in Toronto -- where all on board survived.

Most of the incidents involved small regional airlines, where many pilots complain about working long hours to increase their low earnings and rack up the required 1,000 flight hours to advance to captain status.

"Pilots would show up to work fatigued, land fatigued, take off again fatigued," said Steve, a pilot who asked that his real name not be used.

Steve admitted that he's fallen asleep driving his car to work and while in flight. He once awoke on a flight to discover both he and the flight captain had been asleep.

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