Date: 201603
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: ZZZ.Airport, US
Flight conditions: IMC
Weather elements / visibility: Rain; Thunderstorm
Light: Night
Aircraft: Medium Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: First Officer; Pilot Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Communication Breakdown; Fatigue; Situational Awareness; Workload
Anomaly: Other Fatigue
Detector: Person Flight Crew
Result: Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Physical Injury / Incapacitation
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Company Policy; Procedure; Weather
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: I was flying. Due to weather; maintenance events; and operational issues; I was faced with a duty day extension. With the captain's insistence; I agreed to extend at an outstation to get the plane; passengers; and crew back to our domicile. I ended up extending two hours and ended up blocking 8.5 hours of flights on this day; while a large portion of it was delays in taxi due to weather and ops at our home airport. The total LOGGED duty day was over 13:43 and I state over due to the fact that we had to take the flight attendants' van due to the company's inability to ensure that we had transportation set up for us in overnight station. The company did not have a van for the pilot(s) and we were forced to take the earlier van; thus truly starting this day off earlier than scheduled and adding to the fatigue. This event only gets worse as this incident report will attempt to summarize.  I attempted to secure other transportation but was not able to do so and the captain was unwilling to press this issue. He just wanted to take the earlier van. After going to the room to attempt to get rest in overnight hotel; I was met with a room close to a doorway to hallway stairway and slamming doors. The elevator was also located adjacently. The captain secured a new room but I was not able to secure a new room. He was moved to suite and executive area further up in the hotel. I was not able to get an uninterrupted period of rest due to this and was also forced to take an earlier van which also forced me [to] awaken earlier and cut off 2 hours long and our flight down with all the delays; ended up being right at 4 hours long.Once on the ground at our overnight station; we were met with an extension request. I agreed to extend to get the passengers; crew and plane home. After agreeing to extend; this trip started to unravel more. I was met with a maintenance issue that had to be addressed and on the taxi out; a data link issue with ACARS occurred that caused a longer delay. By the time we landed and processed in via customs late at night; (global entry was closed and we were forced to be in line with everyone else) my duty day actually hit 15:00 + hours. With the heavy rains; I could not get to the parking lot due to backed up traffic via the employee busses backed up. Due to all this; I got home and in bed around after midnight.I had another 2-day trip staring mid-morning. On the drive home; I called scheduling; to discuss this etc. During this time; a two-day trip over the same period came into open time with a late afternoon show time. I asked the schedulers if due to this extended trip and late night arrival they would trade a 2-day trip for a 2-day trip that was open and showed later in the afternoon and they REFUSED. All I wanted to do was mitigate a fatigue event by trading my two trip that showed later in the afternoon. Again; the schedulers refused and I declared fatigued for my trip that showed in just a few hours due to all the factors listed in this report; lack of adequate rest in the hotel room provided the night before; lack of contract specified hotel transportation and inability to secure additional transportation; as none was available at the time; and finally; the lack of the scheduler's ability to trade a nest day 2 day trip for a trip in OPEN TIME that would have given me more rest and mitigated this fatigue event all together. I am being charged sick time for this event. I am requesting that I be paid for this fatigue event by this company and not by sick time. I exhausted every effort and even went above and beyond to try to mitigate this working with scheduling to fly out later but they refused and chose to instead use 2 reserves instead of trading a 2-day trip for a 2-day trip and allowing me to get rest; go out later; and ultimately run a more efficient operation during a critical weather event. I understand that it is my job to fly and scheduling's job to schedule but once again this group couldnot see the forest for the trees. I looked out for the best interests of the company; crew and safety and now I am being penalized with a deduction of my sick time. This is not right and I am sure that you all will see the large picture in this report. The fact of the matter is that I was not safe to fly the next 2-day and I tried to help by offering a solution that was not going to be accepted based on some principal that made no sense. I was fatigued due to combination of events but more so do to the operational inefficiencies of the scheduling group's inability to work with this event on a perfectly legal trade both in contractual terms and FAR terms.




Synopsis: First Officer describes a day's events which resulted in flight time over 8 hours and duty time. He was forced to call in fatigued after crew scheduling refused to permit a later check in trip.