FC5407 - Fatigue
Initial Report
I work for a major UK airline, and my concern is the work rostered and time off in between trips. For example, in recent months I have been rostered 10 trips with only two days off in between them. Out of the 10 trips six of them were two crew three-day trips. I managed to swap one of them to generate three days off for a three-crew heavy trip. In my opinion, this pattern is unsustainable and simply too tiring. I will be calling in unfit if I feel too fatigued to fly. Have emailed the company and raised [a safety report] about potential fatigue. If this issue is not addressed more crew with go fatigued call in sick or there will be an incident or safety lapses as we are so tired.
comments
Airline Comment
We have a comprehensive programme of strategic initiatives underway and one of the areas of focus has been rostering, and we have recently announced a number of significant changes. We are grateful for open reporting of fatigue and rostering issues as this provides the fatigue management process with the required insight to drive change, as has happened in this case. Specifically in relation to the reporter’s scenario, there has been an increase in days off at base on certain routes of a certain duration. We are also looking at rostering improvements for other routes, but these have yet to be announced.
CHIRP Comment
CHIRP has been working on a number of reports from flight crew at this airline and the company’s recent changes in the number of days off at base between certain rostered flights, as outlined by the airline above, has addressed the main concerns raised by our reporters. CHIRP continues to encourage strongly staff to report to their airline all fatigue-related incidents and potential hazards so that information and data can be captured to support positive change