Narrative:

I am a reserve on call from xa:00-xp:00. At xa:10 crew scheduling 'released me into rest' and assigned me to fly a continuous duty over night trip that night with a xm:25 show. I tried to sleep during the day to prepare myself to be able to fly all night. I was unable to get much sleep since I had gotten a good nights sleep the night before. I felt alert and ready to fly at xm:25 when I showed up for my flight. I had had a strong cup of coffee and was ready to go. During the flight that night I began to feel the effects of fatigue about halfway through the flight. We landed without any further problems or incidents. We were scheduled to have 5:34 on the ground between flights. That night during the continuous duty over night I was unable to get much sleep. I was woken up in the middle of the night and had a hard time going back to sleep. I then called crew scheduling and told them I was fatigued and unable to fly the flight that morning. I had had around 2.5 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours and was exhausted. This schedule is a very unsafe schedule although it is perfectly legal per the far's. Crew scheduling continues to use this 'released into rest' loophole in order to get around the far's even though it doesn't make any sense. I don't understand why the crew scheduling department would have a morning reserve pilot flying continuous duty over night instead of a late reserve pilot. I was on a morning/afternoon flying sleep cycle and was unable to adjust to a fly all night sleep cycle in such a short period of time. The crew scheduling department continues to assign trips that have no respect for sleep cycles or circadian rhythm. How can the scheduling department expect you to adjust your sleep cycle to be ready for duty at xa:00 am only to switched to a pm; fly all night schedule? This kind of scheduling practice is very dangerous and leads to flight crews flying while severely fatigued. Hire new scheduling management and obtain new scheduling software to prevent these types of assignments

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-700 reserve Captain was released into rest by crew scheduling at the beginning of his on duty period and assigned a CDO (continuous duty overnight) departing that night. The reporter was unable to get any sleep prior to departure; but felt alert for the first leg into the over night. Reporter was unable to get sufficient rest in the hotel and called in fatigued.

Narrative: I am a reserve on call from XA:00-XP:00. At XA:10 crew scheduling 'released me into rest' and assigned me to fly a continuous duty over night trip that night with a XM:25 show. I tried to sleep during the day to prepare myself to be able to fly all night. I was unable to get much sleep since I had gotten a good nights sleep the night before. I felt alert and ready to fly at XM:25 when I showed up for my flight. I had had a strong cup of coffee and was ready to go. During the flight that night I began to feel the effects of fatigue about halfway through the flight. We landed without any further problems or incidents. We were scheduled to have 5:34 on the ground between flights. That night during the continuous duty over night I was unable to get much sleep. I was woken up in the middle of the night and had a hard time going back to sleep. I then called crew scheduling and told them I was fatigued and unable to fly the flight that morning. I had had around 2.5 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours and was exhausted. This schedule is a very unsafe schedule although it is perfectly legal per the FAR's. Crew scheduling continues to use this 'released into rest' loophole in order to get around the FAR's even though it doesn't make any sense. I don't understand why the crew scheduling department would have a morning reserve pilot flying continuous duty over night instead of a late reserve pilot. I was on a morning/afternoon flying sleep cycle and was unable to adjust to a fly all night sleep cycle in such a short period of time. The crew scheduling department continues to assign trips that have no respect for sleep cycles or circadian rhythm. How can the scheduling department expect you to adjust your sleep cycle to be ready for duty at XA:00 AM only to switched to a PM; fly all night schedule? This kind of scheduling practice is very dangerous and leads to flight crews flying while severely fatigued. Hire new scheduling management and obtain new scheduling software to prevent these types of assignments

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.