Narrative:

We arrived in newark at xa:29 and discovered that the number one engine was leaking oil. We called maintenance; and they were unable to fix the plane that day. We did not get released to go to the hotel until around xi:00 for an 8 hour reduced rest overnight. The next morning we had a show time of xr:15. We arrived back at the airport and the plane was still broken. We did not get the plane fixed and get off of the gate until xw:29. While I was getting the clearance; the captain received a call from dispatch. After I received the clearance and read it back; I verified the flightplan with my charts because it was a route I had never flown before. Then on the taxi out I looked down at the newark eight departure to verify the altitude; because 5;000 ft seemed a little odd. That is what the departure for 22R says; and that is what I believed I wrote on my takeoff card; but because the clearance was so long; I missed the 2;500 ft at the very bottom of the clearance. When we checked in with departure; nothing was said about maintaining 2;500 ft even though we told him we were climbing to 5;000 ft. He then questioned our altitude; and we told him we were assigned 5;000 ft. He then gave us 6;000 ft; and told us to intercept the colts neck VOR 350 radial inbound. Since this was a strange clearance; I immediately turned on the autopilot so I could help the captain. I then turned my VOR needle to the 350 radial so I would not forget this; and went about finding out the frequency. I saw cyn VOR on our flight plan; the captain tuned his VOR to its frequency; and I believed it was the correct frequency as well. It was not; and then ATC gave us a new heading to fly. The event occurred because of the reduced rest overnight from the night before; with having to wait at the plane for 5 hours in the morning before leaving; then having an abnormal route; with a different assigned ATC altitude not listed on the departure; and a VOR that was not on our flight plan and really close to our present position. ATC needs to change the departure to read 5;000 ft; or as assigned by ATC. They also need to assign the very first departure fix when you get your clearance; because this happens all the time in newark where they give you a first fix to fly to and it is never on your clearance.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A regional air carrier flight crew is befuddled by fatigue; maintenance delays; confusing SIDs and clearances and their failure to utilize sound CRM principles to insure mutual understanding of where it is their clearance was to take them.

Narrative: We arrived in Newark at XA:29 and discovered that the number one engine was leaking oil. We called Maintenance; and they were unable to fix the plane that day. We did not get released to go to the hotel until around XI:00 for an 8 hour reduced rest overnight. The next morning we had a show time of XR:15. We arrived back at the airport and the plane was still broken. We did not get the plane fixed and get off of the gate until XW:29. While I was getting the clearance; the Captain received a call from Dispatch. After I received the clearance and read it back; I verified the flightplan with my charts because it was a route I had never flown before. Then on the taxi out I looked down at the Newark Eight departure to verify the altitude; because 5;000 FT seemed a little odd. That is what the departure for 22R says; and that is what I believed I wrote on my takeoff card; but because the clearance was so long; I missed the 2;500 FT at the very bottom of the clearance. When we checked in with Departure; nothing was said about maintaining 2;500 FT even though we told him we were climbing to 5;000 FT. He then questioned our altitude; and we told him we were assigned 5;000 FT. He then gave us 6;000 FT; and told us to intercept the Colts Neck VOR 350 radial inbound. Since this was a strange clearance; I immediately turned on the autopilot so I could help the Captain. I then turned my VOR needle to the 350 radial so I would not forget this; and went about finding out the frequency. I saw CYN VOR on our flight plan; the Captain tuned his VOR to its frequency; and I believed it was the correct frequency as well. It was not; and then ATC gave us a new heading to fly. The event occurred because of the reduced rest overnight from the night before; with having to wait at the plane for 5 hours in the morning before leaving; then having an abnormal route; with a different assigned ATC altitude not listed on the departure; and a VOR that was not on our flight plan and really close to our present position. ATC needs to change the departure to read 5;000 FT; or as assigned by ATC. They also need to assign the very first departure fix when you get your clearance; because this happens all the time in Newark where they give you a first fix to fly to and it is never on your clearance.

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.