Confidential Human Factors
Incident Reporting Programme
The Charity
Aviation
Maritime
CC5878
Initial Report
I called in fatigued as I have been struggling with sleep, operating busy flights on minimum crew since returning. I didn’t feel better on my days off after resting a lot so I called in fatigued (my previous airline never questioned if I was fatigued or not). Had a phone call with my manager who said it doesn’t sound like ‘aviation fatigue’ so could go down as sick. I don’t think this is fair as she’s not medically qualified to say this. I was fatigued so I don’t see how this can be argued with by a manager. In the future it’s made me less sure about going fatigued if I am fatigued. This shouldn’t be the case and I shouldn’t be made to feel like this. I was very shocked when my manager replied with that. I have worked at another airline for years before and they never said anything like that.
Operators Comment
During the summer a new process was implemented to initiate wellbeing as it wasn’t being done systematically previously. The process has been refined following feedback and will continue to be monitored to ensure the process is being applied correctly.
CAA Comment
Under UK Retained Regulations (EU) 965/2012 ORO.FTL.110 (b) Operators Responsibilities – the operator must ensure that flight duty periods are planned in a way that enables crew members to remain sufficiently free from fatigue so that they can operate to a satisfactory level of safety under all circumstances.
UK Retained Regulations (EU) Air Ops ORO.FTL.115 Crew Member Responsibilities – the crew member shall not perform duties on an aircraft if he/she knows or suspects they are suffering from fatigue.
Operators are required to have a confidential system in place allowing crew members to report fatigue, and specific non-punitive fatigue reporting processes under their existing safety reporting procedures. There should be a process/procedure in place to ensure feedback to the reporter.
CHIRP Comment
There is a responsibility on each cabin crew member to ensure that should they not be able to perform the duties expected of them, that they report this to their operator. As the effects of fatigue and an individual’s susceptibility to it are not an exact science, it is up to the crew member to decide if they are fatigued or not.
After a crew member reports ‘fatigued’ it is not unusual for an operator to investigate what may have caused this, operators have a responsibility to see if it could have been caused by rostering, rest or something that has happened in a crew members personal life. The most appropriate time to inquire about crew members fatigue is not at the point of reporting fatigued as with the above report, but at a later date where all the facts are available and the crew member is no longer feeling fatigued.