A321
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Fatigue; Situational Awareness
Deviation - Speed All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors
First officer was hand flying and trying to slow the aircraft on a visual approach after being kept fast on arrival by ATC. Aircraft was at flaps 2; gear down and speed brakes out. First Officer went to retract speed brakes and mistakenly grabbed the flap handle bringing the flaps back up to 0. First thing I noticed as pilot monitoring was the aircraft speeding up and the VLS (lowest selectable speed) (hook) raising rapidly. That's when I said 'your speed brakes are still out' and brought the handle up. At that time he realized the mistake and said 'I brought the flaps up by mistake.' When I looked over the flap indicator appeared to be at 0; we got a quick 'over speed' annunciation and I believe the airspeed was accelerating from 180 to approximately 210 (just at the bottom of the barber pole). Aircraft was reconfigured and remaining approach/landing was normal.It's an unusual occurrence; but it can happen. We both were tired as this was a 2 day trip and after waking up on the east coast and now landing on the west coast it was [late] for us. Although we are all comfortable where things are in the cockpit; a visual look before moving a handle or switch is a good idea.
A321 Captain reported the flying First Officer mistakenly retracted the flaps instead of the speedbrakes on approach. Fatigue was cited as a factor.