Narrative:

I am completely fatigued. Mentally and physically. I wish I was a better writer and had the ability to come up with some fantastic metaphor that would fully express just how tired and beaten down I am. Alas; I can not. However; I can truthfully say that military boot camp; where sleep deprivation and 3:00 am surprise barrack inspections were the norm; was the only other time in my life I have been this thoroughly exhausted. I slept fairly well last night. Not like a baby; the walls are simply too thin and the bed too hard at the layover hotel for that to happen; but as well as could be expected in a cheap hotel room away from home. The cumulative effects of month after month of 6 and 7 leg 12 hour plus duty days; followed by 12 hour or less overnights; routine and unavoidable circadian swaps have taken a toll. I am one burnt out flight attendant!on my first flight of the day; a short haul; I had difficulty remembering parts of the safety pre-departure announcement. When we got in the air; having only a water service to perform; I had difficulty setting up the cart. I couldn't seem to get through my head that I didn't need the ice; coffee cups or juice boxes. I set up the cart wrong 2 consecutive times with all the superfluous items! My flying partner had to essentially scream 'water and cups!' at me a few times before I was able to perform that most basic task. As we were finishing the water service I got frustrated when I was unable to move the cart. I grit my teeth and pulled on the damn thing 5 times before I remembered I had to take the brake off. That is complete mental fatigue and makes me entirely unfit for flight.this fatigue call is the second in three weeks for me. I have until recently had an exemplary attendance record. I didn't miss a single day of work here in my first year plus on the job. There is simply a limited amount of time even the young and healthy can do the work of two before the body starts to rebel. Our airline must find a way to end the circadian swaps; start allowing flight attendants to use their accrued vacation time; and schedule a few more days every bid where we don't have to choose between sleeping and eating. My body; (and I am certainly not alone); simply can't handle these schedules in perpetuity.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Flight Attendant reported the chronic deleterious effects of extended periods of physiologically debilitating scheduling practices at his airline.

Narrative: I am completely fatigued. Mentally and physically. I wish I was a better writer and had the ability to come up with some fantastic metaphor that would fully express just how tired and beaten down I am. Alas; I can not. However; I can truthfully say that military boot camp; where sleep deprivation and 3:00 am surprise barrack inspections were the norm; was the only other time in my life I have been this thoroughly exhausted. I slept fairly well last night. Not like a baby; the walls are simply too thin and the bed too hard at the layover hotel for that to happen; but as well as could be expected in a cheap hotel room away from home. The cumulative effects of month after month of 6 and 7 leg 12 hour plus duty days; followed by 12 hour or less overnights; routine and unavoidable circadian swaps have taken a toll. I am one burnt out Flight Attendant!On my first flight of the day; a short haul; I had difficulty remembering parts of the safety pre-departure announcement. When we got in the air; having only a water service to perform; I had difficulty setting up the cart. I couldn't seem to get through my head that I didn't need the ice; coffee cups or juice boxes. I set up the cart wrong 2 consecutive times with all the superfluous items! My flying partner had to essentially scream 'water and cups!' at me a few times before I was able to perform that most basic task. As we were finishing the water service I got frustrated when I was unable to move the cart. I grit my teeth and pulled on the damn thing 5 times before I remembered I had to take the brake off. That is complete mental fatigue and makes me entirely unfit for flight.This fatigue call is the second in three weeks for me. I have until recently had an exemplary attendance record. I didn't miss a single day of work here in my first year plus on the job. There is simply a limited amount of time even the young and healthy can do the work of two before the body starts to rebel. Our airline must find a way to end the circadian swaps; start allowing flight attendants to use their accrued vacation time; and schedule a few more days every bid where we don't have to choose between sleeping and eating. My body; (and I am certainly not alone); simply can't handle these schedules in perpetuity.

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.