MD-11
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Fatigue
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
We made a normal descent and approach into RJBB; we were both pretty tired and we were the only airplane on frequency. We briefed the 06L approach; including the noise abatement procedure - delaying both gear and flap extension. (Gear after 2500 feet; final flaps after 1500 feet) First leg; I had felt pretty good. Same with the departure out. Somewhere along the way to RJBB; I got pretty tired. I drank several cups of coffee; chased each one with a water bottle; and walked around a bit trying to liven up. Nothing seemed to help much. I got into a 'thousand yard stare' on approach and fought to stay engaged. I called 'stable' and 'cleared to land' at 500 feet; looking at the LOC and GS but not noticing the flaps were still only at 28. We landed with flaps at 28. Tired or not; I should have caught it. I should have realized we never ran the landing check below the line or kept the checklist in my hand to remind me or something. I should have caught it; and I let the captain down by being a poor monitor. We deviated from normal workflow and procedure in an attempt to comply with the noise abatement. We then got tired and distracted; and failed to pick up where we left off. We were tired. The sleep cycle swaps on this trip have been hard. I didn't see that until tonight. Having just a few more hours of layover before would have been nice- I tried as hard as I could to get more sleep; but I couldn't. Better attention to detail when doing my job. I still should have caught it.
We were operating on our second leg of the night. I was using the HUD/EFVS system for practice during the approach. I knew we were both tired from our discussion on the way to the airport. I slept as much as I could on the layover getting over 12 hours; but did not feel rested. We each had several cups of coffee on the second leg; but that obviously was not enough to make us alert. I was concentrating on nailing the approach because I knew I was tired. We failed to select flaps to 35 at 1500 feet AGL to complete the landing checklist. We had Ground proximity alert on short final but could see the runway VMC and elected to continue. We both realized what had happened when the auto brakes kicked off immediately upon landing. Landing was uneventful. Stopping was normal due to our light weight. Fatigue and non-compliance with SOP. Disputed pairing for November given off reserve. I usually write myself a note and put it on the yoke. Also I usually state differences to standards such as final Flaps at 1500 feet AGL. As part of every checklist from In Range; Approach; and Before Landing to avoid such an occurrence.
MD-11 international flight crew landed in RJBB with flaps 28 instead of the normal flaps 35. Both reporters cited fatigue as a contributing factor.