Narrative:

I was given a very late night short call assignment shortly after noon for the next day. I was called at mid morning on the next day and told that my rest was to be reset for a mid-evening departure. I fell asleep at approximately an hour or so before midnight on the night before the trip. I awoke at about three hours later and I don't sleep soundly so as to listen and be ready for a possible phone call in the early am. I questioned the crew desk on the prudence and the safety of this assignment and the supervisor laughed it off. I told them to have a standby captain ready in the event the flight was delayed. The flight left on time and by the time we were at the midnight portion of the flight the first officer started to become exhausted and started to nod off. He had to get up several times to make himself alert. By the last hour of flight we had both had it and had to deal with an arrival change and 2 runway changes. This late night flight needs to be assigned to west coast crews or a reserve that is rested at the hotel. And at the very least assign a reserve that is at a more appropriate time. When there are trips that operate out of the domicile with late departures; then the crew desk should assign a daily short call with that in mind. This isn't farm equipment we're handling. And the crew desk isn't riding on the back of the tractor.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain described fatigue after his reserve trip departure time was reset from an early afternoon departure to a late night departure after poor sleep planned for the earlier flight.

Narrative: I was given a very late night short call assignment shortly after noon for the next day. I was called at mid morning on the next day and told that my rest was to be reset for a mid-evening departure. I fell asleep at approximately an hour or so before midnight on the night before the trip. I awoke at about three hours later and I don't sleep soundly so as to listen and be ready for a possible phone call in the early AM. I questioned the crew desk on the prudence and the safety of this assignment and the supervisor laughed it off. I told them to have a standby Captain ready in the event the flight was delayed. The flight left on time and by the time we were at the midnight portion of the flight the First Officer started to become exhausted and started to nod off. He had to get up several times to make himself alert. By the last hour of flight we had both had it and had to deal with an arrival change and 2 runway changes. This late night flight needs to be assigned to west coast crews or a reserve that is rested at the hotel. And at the very least assign a reserve that is at a more appropriate time. When there are trips that operate out of the domicile with late departures; then the crew desk should assign a daily short call with that in mind. This isn't farm equipment we're handling. And the crew desk isn't riding on the back of the tractor.

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.