Narrative:

This safety report is strictly informational and being filed to prevent future accidents or incidents caused by fatigue and inadequate rest. I realize this report is not being filed within 24 hours of any specific event but it does not pertain to any one event. I have not flown fatigued but am concerned that air carrier X's frequent scheduling of reduced rest overnights poses an enormous safety risk to our airline's operation. The flight specified in this report was the first flight after my most recent report after scheduled reduced rest of less than 9 hours. I do not feel the crew in this report flew fatigued. A quick look back of the past 5 months of flying revealed that 13 of the past 25 scheduled trips I have flown included one or more nights of reduced rest. During the past 6 weeks; scheduling has extended me 4 times an average of 6 hours past my originally scheduled release time with 'add on' assignments and two of these revolved around reduced rest. This type of scheduling could cause chronic fatigue; especially for pilots who commute. I worry that many pilots here; especially those on reserve; have more than 50 percent of their trips scheduled with reduced rest. Scheduled reduced rest often results in overnights with 5 or 6 hours of actual sleep. Crews become anxious because they must worry about the far legalities of report times and often flight delays require a crew to report late at the gate: 30 minutes prior to departure. Thirty minutes; in my opinion; provides very little time to adequately preflight an originating aircraft and board all the passengers. A crew becomes rushed and this rushing continues when conducting all the first flight checks while taxing out to the runway. I realize rest rule changes are being debated by the federal aviation administration and congress so I felt this safety issue important enough to warrant a safety report. Scheduling reduced rest as a routine practice without regard for the fatigue it causes on airline crews should never be allowed unless it is unavoidable. The number of reduced rest trips in our bid packages poses one of the largest safety threats to our crews and passengers at this airline. Hopefully; this report will promote a constructive dialogue on how the trips can be restructured to halt these fatigue inducing assignments. Two of my trips in the past month have had two of three nights scheduled with reduced rest. These trips were created using bad judgment and are unsafe. Air carrier X should never schedule reduced rest overnights unless it is required due to unforeseen events. Reduced rest overnights should only be allowed if there are unforeseen delays be they weather; ATC; or mechanical. There is a difference between what is legal and what is safe and air carrier X should stop scheduling reduced rest overnights. Congress should mandate simpler rest rules and give airline crews a minimum of 10 hour overnights to limit fatigue. I shouldn't have to carry a handheld pda logbook program with me to determine if I am legally rested. Reduced rest should be based on actual flight time not scheduled flight time. To eliminate this confusion; one simple rest standard should be applied; such as a 10 hour rest minimum.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An airline First Officer addressed the fatigue issues associated without planned reduced rest flight schedules.

Narrative: This safety report is strictly informational and being filed to prevent future accidents or incidents caused by fatigue and inadequate rest. I realize this report is not being filed within 24 hours of any specific event but it does not pertain to any one event. I have not flown fatigued but am concerned that Air Carrier X's frequent scheduling of reduced rest overnights poses an enormous safety risk to our airline's operation. The flight specified in this report was the first flight after my most recent report after scheduled reduced rest of less than 9 hours. I do not feel the crew in this report flew fatigued. A quick look back of the past 5 months of flying revealed that 13 of the past 25 scheduled trips I have flown included one or more nights of reduced rest. During the past 6 weeks; scheduling has extended me 4 times an average of 6 hours past my originally scheduled release time with 'add on' assignments and two of these revolved around reduced rest. This type of scheduling could cause chronic fatigue; especially for pilots who commute. I worry that many pilots here; especially those on reserve; have more than 50 percent of their trips scheduled with reduced rest. Scheduled reduced rest often results in overnights with 5 or 6 hours of actual sleep. Crews become anxious because they must worry about the FAR legalities of report times and often flight delays require a crew to report late at the gate: 30 minutes prior to departure. Thirty minutes; in my opinion; provides very little time to adequately preflight an originating aircraft and board all the passengers. A crew becomes rushed and this rushing continues when conducting all the first flight checks while taxing out to the runway. I realize rest rule changes are being debated by the Federal Aviation Administration and Congress so I felt this safety issue important enough to warrant a safety report. Scheduling reduced rest as a routine practice without regard for the fatigue it causes on airline crews should never be allowed unless it is unavoidable. The number of reduced rest trips in our bid packages poses one of the largest safety threats to our crews and passengers at this airline. Hopefully; this report will promote a constructive dialogue on how the trips can be restructured to halt these fatigue inducing assignments. Two of my trips in the past month have had two of three nights scheduled with reduced rest. These trips were created using bad judgment and are unsafe. Air Carrier X should never schedule reduced rest overnights unless it is required due to unforeseen events. Reduced rest overnights should only be allowed if there are unforeseen delays be they weather; ATC; or mechanical. There is a difference between what is legal and what is safe and Air Carrier X should stop scheduling reduced rest overnights. Congress should mandate simpler rest rules and give airline crews a minimum of 10 hour overnights to limit fatigue. I shouldn't have to carry a handheld PDA logbook program with me to determine if I am legally rested. Reduced rest should be based on ACTUAL flight time not SCHEDULED flight time. To eliminate this confusion; one simple rest standard should be applied; such as a 10 hour rest minimum.

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.