B757 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240; Flight Crew Total 13000; Flight Crew Type 2900
Fatigue; Situational Awareness; Workload
Other Fatigue
General Work Refused
Company Policy; Human Factors
I was flying a four day sequence of flights culminating with a red-eye flight departing the West Coast near midnight and arriving in my East Coast home around 0700L. On the day of that leg I awoke at 0800L after eight hours sleep then went down for a nap at 1600; hoping to sleep until 1900 to prepare for the flight. I have flown this red-eye scenario numerous times. Due to parking lot noise and constantly banging hotel room doors; I only got one hour actual sleep (1700-1800); which was sufficient for the flight. After landing I drove home and went to bed at 0915L but was awakened by call from Crew Scheduling at 1331 assigning me a 0200 short call status the following morning. I could not get back to sleep after the call; so had about 4+15 hours sleep during that period. In order to try to get sufficient sleep in case I was called early the next morning; went to bed at 2200; but as I had only been awake for 8+30 hours since the last sleep period; did not actually fall asleep until about 0100. Crew Scheduling called at 0233 to assign me a 0845 departure back to the West Coast. I technically had two more hours of sleep available prior to having to get up; get ready and go to the airport; but I surmised (correctly; as it turned out) that once having been wakened I would not be able to get back to sleep. This sleep period turned out to be 1+45 hours long. Realizing I was not then and certainly would not be well-rested and alert for a transcontinental flight ending at 1415L my time I was forced to call in fatigued; and told the crew desk I would be well rested and available after about 1400L.Over a period of two nights I received a total of 5+45 sleep. Furthermore; both sleep periods had been interrupted by calls from Crew Scheduling. With the interruptions and changing day/night; wake/sleep cycles; I was powerless to effectively increase my sleeping time. I was obviously not well-rested and alert enough to ethically accept the flight assignment. Put another way; had I accepted the assignment; I would have been awake for a period exceeding 51 hours (0800 PST [day 1] to 1145 PST [day 3] with a total of 6+45 hours sleep (the aforementioned 5+45 plus the 1-hour afternoon nap [day 1]). Greatly exacerbating that sleep deprivation was the day/night/day shift in that time period: a full circadian day awake followed by a full circadian night awake; followed by a full circadian day awake set of shifts; all within a 51-hour period. Obviously this does not work. As an aside; as I was not able to get back to sleep after calling in fatigued I stayed up; coincidentally; until the flight I had refused departed at 0845. Had I not called in fatigued when called at 0230; I absolutely would have had to cry fatigue at push time! I was in no way well-rested and alert enough to fly a plane full of passengers. Though legal contractually and by FARs; this situation is; by definition; a problem. With the day/night circadian shifts in such short order and the unexpected (and therefore not able to plan for) phone calls interrupting what sleep the pilot is able to accrue; sufficient rest is not reasonably attainable. The new FAA rest rules attempt to address this problem to a degree; but circadian rhythm and rest interruptions are still not sufficiently addressed. In nearly 16 years at my airline; I have never [before] called in fatigued. Insofar as my experience and credentials for making the above assessment; I have 15+ years at this air carrier flying various Boeings and Airbuses as an engineer and First Officer and as a Captain on the Airbus. I can confidently say our airline has systemic fatigue issues yet to be resolved.
A B757 First Officer gave a detailed accounting of the airline's flight crew scheduling practices which made it necessary for him to refuse an assignment due to fatigue. Factors addressed include circadian rhythms; rest/sleep cycles; interrupted sleep; on call interruptions; noisy rest facilities; and others.