Narrative:

As a reserve first officer; I was assigned the following four day trip: day 1 - duty on at xa:30AM; 4:41 hours of block; 9:08 hours on duty. Day 2 - duty on at xa:20AM; 6 hours of block; 10 hours on duty. Circadian swap overnight; duty on at xk:05PM; 5 hours block; 8 hours of duty. Another circadian swap overnight back to am; day 4 - duty on at xa:00AM; 4.5 hours of block. On the third day; we didn't get to the hotel until xt:30 due to weather at the final destination. I was also notified (earlier that day) that my schedule had changed for the last day - instead of 4 legs and 9 hours of duty; I was to fly to ZZZ1; sit for 4 hours; fly to ZZZ2; sit for 2.5 hours then end my day at xq:30PM at another overnight. During the flight to ZZZ2; I felt lightheaded and was consistently missing radio calls; generally I was not sharp. After I arrived at ZZZ2; I felt that continuing to fly would jeopardize the safety of the flight - especially when I was to sit for 2.5 hours prior to my next flight; so I called out fatigued - although; I was extremely nervous of doing so; due to the letter from the chief pilot alluding to action to be taken against pilots who call out sick. Crew scheduling practices are in direct violation of industry standard safe practices; and ignore sleep research and safe scheduling guidelines. The airline is not staffed appropriately; so scheduling has to scramble for bodies to patch holes. Safety is being compromised in favor of cost cutting. The original trip was bad enough; with a double circadian swap built into the trip; then made worse when I was extended to fly a pm trip from an am schedule.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A First Officer for a commuter air carrier described a flight assignment which caused him to refuse to fly further on the fourth day of the sequence due to fatigue. Reporter further expressed his concern over doing so as a result of a threatening letter from the Chief Pilot regarding pilots use of sick leave.

Narrative: As a reserve First Officer; I was assigned the following four day trip: Day 1 - Duty on at XA:30AM; 4:41 hours of block; 9:08 hours on duty. Day 2 - Duty on at XA:20AM; 6 hours of block; 10 hours on duty. Circadian swap overnight; duty on at XK:05PM; 5 hours block; 8 hours of duty. Another circadian swap overnight back to AM; day 4 - Duty on at XA:00AM; 4.5 hours of block. On the third day; we didn't get to the hotel until XT:30 due to weather at the final destination. I was also notified (earlier that day) that my schedule had changed for the last day - instead of 4 legs and 9 hours of duty; I was to fly to ZZZ1; sit for 4 hours; fly to ZZZ2; sit for 2.5 hours then end my day at XQ:30PM at another overnight. During the flight to ZZZ2; I felt lightheaded and was consistently missing radio calls; generally I was not sharp. After I arrived at ZZZ2; I felt that continuing to fly would jeopardize the safety of the flight - especially when I was to sit for 2.5 hours prior to my next flight; so I called out fatigued - although; I was extremely nervous of doing so; due to the letter from the Chief Pilot alluding to action to be taken against pilots who call out sick. Crew scheduling practices are in direct violation of industry standard safe practices; and ignore sleep research and safe scheduling guidelines. The airline is not staffed appropriately; so scheduling has to scramble for bodies to patch holes. Safety is being compromised in favor of cost cutting. The original trip was bad enough; with a double circadian swap built into the trip; then made worse when I was extended to fly a PM trip from an AM schedule.

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.