For once a good piece of journalism from the BBC on aviation.
Fatigue is in my opinion, a much bigger problem to the industry than the current fixation with alcohol. As airlines try to make more money in a competitive market they have to work their crews harder and closer to the maximum hours to become efficient- on the beancounters' orders. The result is that from time to time that fatigue will manifest itself in the worst possible way as shown on the report.
All short haul pilots have suffered fatigue from time to time. Minimum rest between duties, noisy hotels, family life etc. all contribute.
My airline often schedule crews a minimum rest between flight duty periods and there is enough time to get eight hours sleep, but only if you can walk through the door of the hotel room, undress, climb into bed and fall asleep! Most can't and need time to wind down before sleep.
Operating at times of the body's circadium lows- getting up at 0300 to drive to work and fly a four sector day are not condusive to good sleep. The first early after a few days off is very hard. Earlies become easier as you get into a pattern of them over a few days- simply because you are so tired you just go to bed.
The only way to eradicate, or seriously reduce fatigue amongst crews is to provide more social rostering- i.e. later starts and more rest between duties. But will this happen? No, of course not- because it costs money and will require more crews. So fatigue is a way of life. Unless someone can come up with a better solution?