Communication Breakdown; Fatigue; Workload
Other Fatigue
General Work Refused
Company Policy
This report is with regards to my request to be removed from a pairing as a result fatigue. My fatigue resulted from an extended waking day of over 18 hours; an accompanying 13 plus hour duty day with over 10 hours of flight responsibilities coupled with delay challenges and inadequate nutritional support. This pairing; the second of which was assigned to me at early evening after changes to my call window from XA00 to XJ00; consisted of a flight with a return segment from my home domicile to destination and return. To manage the early morning show time; I retired to bed around XN15 the previous night. However; I was unable to immediately fall asleep and by the time I awoke before sunrise; had manage approximate 5 hours of sleep. Following preparations for work; I felt fit enough to complete the day's flight assignments however conscious that it will indeed be very long day. After arriving at parking and a shuttle ride to the airport; I was in the airport seven minutes before my show time. Upon checking the flight status however; I discovered that it was delayed due to thick low fog covering this airport and much of central New Jersey. Later; other passenger related delays would preclude us from timely departure area. Our 5 hour 20 minute flight took us through a region of mostly continuous light to moderate turbulence until finding some smooth air after three hours of flying. I took first break which lasted about two hours; but had very little rest due to interrupting passengers with questions spanning from our earlier delays to the B787; before finally giving up and returning to the cockpit to prepare for the challenging arrival to destination. Arriving to destination behind schedule; our turn was further delayed by the late delivery of several crew ordered personal meals (ordered inbound via ACARS/ as adequate company crew meals were not provided) which had to be delivered to the aircraft by Operations (new procedures at this airport). Finally; with our passengers and meals on board we took off for our final destination. It was my leg to fly and the Captain's turn to rest (did not on the first leg) so the IRO and I flew most of the trip home; arriving into our home base that night 15 minutes past our original time (the best we could achieve to catching up) and dark as the hour I awoke that morning. By then it was quite obvious how tired we all were from the long day of being awake for over 16 hours. After completing checklists; storing my flight bag and catching the shuttle to parking; I felt completely drained on my 50 minute drive home. It was then I discovered that crew scheduling had other plans by their two unanswered attempts at reaching me by phone while driving. The first call was without message but the second about 15 minutes later; included a summary of their plans. Getting home at approximately XN30 tired; hungry; and confronted with a message that defied all logic; demonstrated complete negligence and disregard of common courtesy; dinner; which required some preparation came first. I then contacted the Crew Desk to ask my removal from the scheduled pairing the following morning since it would not have given me enough time to get the adequate rest to recover; and be to fit to perform my duties responsibly by the XW30; its published show time.
A First Officer called in fatigued after being scheduled for an early morning show trip following thirteen hour duty day with sixteen hours awake.