Narrative:

I made numerous errors during the entire flight. I missed several radio calls on the ground and in-flight; missed several required callouts and did not react to errors made by the pilot flying. None of the errors caused a safety event. I am a reserve and have no choice in the trips I fly. This was the third in a row of continuous on duty all nighters. I had a total of less than 10 hours sleep on these trips. I tried to sleep during the day; but found it very difficult to get quality rest. I did not realize how tired I was during the first leg. I was too tired to make good decisions and my judgment was affected by fatigue. This resulted in numerous errors during the flight. If I had realized how tired I was; I would not have flown. I was still on reserve after these trips and was finally getting caught up on sleep when scheduling called at XA00 to transition me to short call reserve. They adjusted my 9 hour protected rest time to XB00 to XK00. It would have been nice to be called closer to XB00 to get another hour of sleep. Fortunately I was not called to fly. The next day my protected rest time was moved to XS00 to XD00. That meant that somehow I was to rest from XB00 to XK00 and be ready for duty with adequate rest starting at XK00 and then go back into rest at XS00 and ready for duty with adequate rest at XD00 the next day. Again; I was not called to fly. I was so fatigued by the end of this period that I would have been unsafe to drive to the airport. The environment at our company is toxic enough without adding scheduling induced fatigue. Stress is extremely high and most pilots show up to work already fatigued and often reach an even higher level of performance degradation as the work period progresses. I fly with first officers that are worried about feeding their kids and paying their mortgage. Throw in a couple of all nighters and protected rest times that change at the whim of schedulers and the crew can be fatigued to the max and probably not know it. Calling in fatigued is hard to do when you are too tired to realize you are fatigued and knowing your pay will be reduced. Protected rest times need to reflect what the pilot has done and if the pilot can reasonably be expected to get actual rest. All nighters should be done away with. I will never fly 3 in a row again. We need leadership that realizes how dangerous the environment is and will seek solutions instead of management that is only concerned with on time performance and how to get their next bonus.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier Captain reports extreme and ongoing fatigue exacerbated by airline reserve scheduling practices.

Narrative: I made numerous errors during the entire flight. I missed several radio calls on the ground and in-flight; missed several required callouts and did not react to errors made by the pilot flying. None of the errors caused a safety event. I am a reserve and have no choice in the trips I fly. This was the third in a row of continuous on duty all nighters. I had a total of less than 10 hours sleep on these trips. I tried to sleep during the day; but found it very difficult to get quality rest. I did not realize how tired I was during the first leg. I was too tired to make good decisions and my judgment was affected by fatigue. This resulted in numerous errors during the flight. If I had realized how tired I was; I would not have flown. I was still on reserve after these trips and was finally getting caught up on sleep when scheduling called at XA00 to transition me to short call reserve. They adjusted my 9 hour protected rest time to XB00 to XK00. It would have been nice to be called closer to XB00 to get another hour of sleep. Fortunately I was not called to fly. The next day my protected rest time was moved to XS00 to XD00. That meant that somehow I was to rest from XB00 to XK00 and be ready for duty with adequate rest starting at XK00 and then go back into rest at XS00 and ready for duty with adequate rest at XD00 the next day. Again; I was not called to fly. I was so fatigued by the end of this period that I would have been unsafe to drive to the airport. The environment at our company is toxic enough without adding scheduling induced fatigue. Stress is extremely high and most pilots show up to work already fatigued and often reach an even higher level of performance degradation as the work period progresses. I fly with first officers that are worried about feeding their kids and paying their mortgage. Throw in a couple of all nighters and protected rest times that change at the whim of schedulers and the crew can be fatigued to the max and probably not know it. Calling in fatigued is hard to do when you are too tired to realize you are fatigued and knowing your pay will be reduced. Protected rest times need to reflect what the pilot has done and if the pilot can reasonably be expected to get actual rest. All nighters should be done away with. I will never fly 3 in a row again. We need leadership that realizes how dangerous the environment is and will seek solutions instead of management that is only concerned with on time performance and how to get their next bonus.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.