An air carrier captain cited the company's removal of relief pilots on all night rjaa/phnl round tri...

Narrative:

Flight operations management has chosen to remove the relief first officer on an all night flight from narita to honolulu. Furthermore; the westbound hnl-nrt flight on our trip was over 8 hours and is also operated with only basic crew of captain and first officer. It is unsafe and company must return immediately to three pilots on this flight. I was unable to sleep during the day in tokyo; as I was awakened by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake; then learned of a tsunami warning that was issued. There is no surprise that there are frequent earthquakes in japan. Actually this is the second time within the last few months where I've been awakened by a major earthquake while attempting to get necessary rest in japan. During the flight; my level of functioning was greatly impaired. Fatigue and stress were the main reasons for my condition. There is absolutely no way that safe flight operations can be guaranteed on these flights if we continue to fly them without a relief first officer. I request that this report be forwarded to our FAA principal operations inspector.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain cited the company's removal of relief pilots on all night RJAA/PHNL round trips as detrimental to safety. Also cited was the frequent occurrence of earthquakes in Japan which compound the difficulty of achieving adequate rest prior to such trips.

Narrative: Flight operations management has chosen to remove the relief First Officer on an all night flight from Narita to Honolulu. Furthermore; the westbound HNL-NRT flight on our trip was over 8 hours and is also operated with only basic crew of Captain and F/O. It is unsafe and company must return immediately to three pilots on this flight. I was unable to sleep during the day in Tokyo; as I was awakened by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake; then learned of a tsunami warning that was issued. There is no surprise that there are frequent earthquakes in Japan. Actually this is the second time within the last few months where I've been awakened by a major earthquake while attempting to get necessary rest in Japan. During the flight; my level of functioning was greatly impaired. Fatigue and stress were the main reasons for my condition. There is absolutely no way that safe flight operations can be guaranteed on these flights if we continue to fly them without a Relief First Officer. I request that this report be forwarded to our FAA Principal Operations Inspector.

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	958328
Time
Date	201107
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZHN.ARTCC
State Reference	HI
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 220 Flight Crew Total 18000 Flight Crew Type 3000
Events
Anomaly	Other Fatigue

An air carrier captain cited the company's removal of relief pilots on all night rjaa/phnl round trips as detrimental to safety. Also cited was the frequent occurrence of earthquakes in japan which compound the difficulty of achieving adequate rest prior to such trips.