Heavy Transport
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 155; Flight Crew Total 2854
Time Pressure; Workload; Confusion
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Procedure; Human Factors
We had a crew duty day limit of XE:30 before showing for flight ZZZ-NRT. Scheduled departure was XA:05 local ZZZ time. We departed the hotel as scheduled however after arriving at the gate we were told that departure was delayed until XD:00. I spoke with scheduling and told them that I did not believe that we would be able to fly the return flight because I believed we would exceed our crew duty day and inquired as to why we were not notified before leaving the hotel. I was told that this would be addressed upon arrival in NRT. We block in at NRT and were informed of our [Out of Duty] time. Both myself and my FO (First Officer) questioned the validity of this time. I obtained the flight plan and saw that we have a scheduled flight time of 2:59 at .85 Mach! NRT operations turns the aircraft in only 52 minutes! We block out and are airborne 13 minutes before the [Out of Duty] time. We fly the leg back to ZZZ with a total block time of only 3:20! Well below the historical block time for the leg. With the scheduled debriefing time we exceeded our max duty day by 19 minutes. In my opinion it was mathematically impossible to operate the segment without exceeding our duty day of XE:30 and that the [Out of Duty] time we received in NRT was fictitious.
Prior to departure our flight was delayed 3 hours. [The Captain] contacted scheduling to inform them that we would not be legal to return due to our duty day limitation of XE:30. They told us to go and on first leg and then the rest would be worked out. We departed and arrived in NRT; where they did an amazingly quick turn. We were given a local [Out of Duty] of XG:38 local to depart while being dispatched at .85 [Mach] in 2:59 minutes. We departed 13 minutes prior to that time and flew the exact profile with short cuts. At block in we had exceeded the max day by 4 min not including the 15 minute debrief. We departed early and still flew over the time.
Flight crew reported exceeding allowed crew day hours due to unrealistic expectations.