Narrative:

I was unable to complete my schedule due to fatigue. I feel the schedule that was created was to blame for this incident. The first day of the trip started around mid afternoon and ended around midnight. The second day started around twenty five hours after the first day's check-in and ended around midnight. The third day started around eleven hours later in the late morning and was scheduled to end around eight and a half hours later; but due to delays did not end until close to ten hours after check-in. Delays were due to the short staffing of the company and lack of first officers to cover the deadhead we were on to a major base. A first officer was junior manned; but did not arrive until about an hour after scheduled departure time. On the fourth day of the trip we were now supposed to wake up at very early in the morning to get onto our van before dawn. This was a drastic schedule change after the first two nights of the trip ending after midnight. A person cannot change sleep schedules like that. To make it worse we were scheduled for our longest day with 7 [hours] 45 [minutes] of block time and a 12 hour day on the last day of our trip. That is a cruel schedule and is not safe. I am used to the usual method of starting crews earlier each day; but you can't save that busy day for the last day of the trip after you reduce rest people with a late to early schedule change and expect them to be rested. I called out fatigued before the last two legs of the day because I felt unable to continue safely. I notified scheduling I wasn't going to be able to continue after the next leg. I felt safe to get the plane to the second to last airport on this day. The last turn; I knew I couldn't make it another six hours once we returned to our base without sleep.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier First Officer called in fatigued on the last day of a four day trip which began with two late check-ins; a late morning check-in; and finally a very early check-in for a twelve hour duty day with 7+45 flight hours.

Narrative: I was unable to complete my schedule due to fatigue. I feel the schedule that was created was to blame for this incident. The first day of the trip started around mid afternoon and ended around midnight. The second day started around twenty five hours after the first day's check-in and ended around midnight. The third day started around eleven hours later in the late morning and was scheduled to end around eight and a half hours later; but due to delays did not end until close to ten hours after check-in. Delays were due to the short staffing of the company and lack of first officers to cover the deadhead we were on to a major base. A First Officer was junior manned; but did not arrive until about an hour after scheduled departure time. On the fourth day of the trip we were now supposed to wake up at very early in the morning to get onto our van before dawn. This was a drastic schedule change after the first two nights of the trip ending after midnight. A person cannot change sleep schedules like that. To make it worse we were scheduled for our longest day with 7 [hours] 45 [minutes] of block time and a 12 hour day on the last day of our trip. That is a cruel schedule and is not safe. I am used to the usual method of starting crews earlier each day; but you can't save that busy day for the last day of the trip after you reduce rest people with a late to early schedule change and expect them to be rested. I called out fatigued before the last two legs of the day because I felt unable to continue safely. I notified scheduling I wasn't going to be able to continue after the next leg. I felt safe to get the plane to the second to last airport on this day. The last turn; I knew I couldn't make it another six hours once we returned to our base without sleep.

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.