An air carrier first officer refused to continue his flight sequence due to fatigue. Cited frequent ...

Narrative:

I was scheduled for reduced rest as a reserve pilot assigned a short flight with a short layover. We were two hours late; which gave us the minimum rest of 8 hours and a 30 minute report. Since the company includes time in the hotel van as rest; we were required to be at the airport by 0645 'our report' time. Including time to unwind after the day and waking up in the morning and getting ready; I was able to get less than 6 hours of sleep. Upon arriving at our first destination of the day I determined that I was no longer fit to fly further and I called in fatigued. Reduced rest is by far the most unsafe practice continually doled out to the pilots at our company. As a line holder over the last 6 months or so I have very rarely had reduced rest; but as I type this I see that the company has once again scheduled me for reduced rest tonight. Reserve pilots work longer hours than line pilots; and still get reduced rest. With all of the studies and pressure from events this year; how is it possible that the company can get away with scheduling a pilot for 'rest' with sleep of no more than 6 hours? Is safety the first goal here? I don't think so.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier First Officer refused to continue his flight sequence due to fatigue. Cited frequent company practice of scheduling 'reduced rest' for reserve flight crew.

Narrative: I was scheduled for reduced rest as a reserve pilot assigned a short flight with a short layover. We were two hours late; which gave us the minimum rest of 8 hours and a 30 minute report. Since the company includes time in the hotel van as rest; we were required to be at the airport by 0645 'our report' time. Including time to unwind after the day and waking up in the morning and getting ready; I was able to get less than 6 hours of sleep. Upon arriving at our first destination of the day I determined that I was no longer fit to fly further and I called in fatigued. Reduced rest is by far the most unsafe practice continually doled out to the pilots at our company. As a line holder over the last 6 months or so I have very rarely had reduced rest; but as I type this I see that the company has once again scheduled me for reduced rest tonight. Reserve pilots work longer hours than line pilots; and still get reduced rest. With all of the studies and pressure from events this year; how is it possible that the company can get away with scheduling a pilot for 'rest' with sleep of no more than 6 hours? Is safety the first goal here? I don't think so.

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.

Attributes
ACN	866009
Time
Date	200912
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	No Aircraft
Flight Phase	Other Non-Flight
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

An air carrier first officer refused to continue his flight sequence due to fatigue. Cited frequent company practice of scheduling 'reduced rest' for reserve flight crew.