Dispatch Dispatcher
Distraction; Fatigue
Other fatigue
General Work Refused; General Physical Injury / Incapacitation
Company Policy; Human Factors
I am writing this in the event I made any mistakes that may have impacted operations and to express concern over what led to my fatigue. I had just worked a month of afternoon shifts and was going to be working midnight shifts next month. I was junior manned into a 10 hour long; 0400 start time shift right in the middle of this change over.As a result; my sleep pattern was out of whack and I was unable to sleep well before my shift. I got only about four hours sleep before this shift; although I was alert and felt at the beginning of the shift that I would be okay. However; I tired out quickly. With one hour left in my shift I reached a point that I could not concentrate and noticed I was making mistakes. I had put the wrong altitude on a flight going north bound so I had to fix that. In the process of fixing it I had a hard time just concentrating. On the phone I felt it was hard to listen and absorb what a Load Planner was telling me. I had never had this happen to me in my dispatch career. I was at a point I knew I could not handle the workload. I made the decision to tell my Manager that I was fatigued and needed to be relieved of duty. The Manager was very understanding and helped; I gave a briefing and went home with about 45 minutes left in that shift.I think the problem for me was that I never expected to get so tired into the shift. This kind of fatigue was something I had not previously experienced. I also got very sick that night and I think part of the problem was my body may have been fighting a bug which may have contributed to the rapid onset of the fatigue. The workload on this shift is ridiculous even if you are 100% alert. It is non stop releasing of 45 to 50 flights. Even though in this case it was good weather; I still struggled to keep up.
A Dispatcher reported being required to work unplanned schedules that were inimical to his/her established diurnal body clock; resulting in deteriorated ability to exercise operational control of his/her flights.