The nation’s air safety agency has called for better pilot fatigue monitoring mechanisms, after an investigation revealed that both pilots of a commercial aircraft had recently fallen asleep in-flight.
A pilot and co-pilot were simultaneously asleep for approximately 28 minutes during a Batik Air flight from South East Sulawesi to the capital Jakarta on Jan 25, a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) said.
The report, seen by AFP on Friday, was uploaded to the agency’s website in late February.
The incident resulted in a series of navigation errors, but the Airbus A320’s 153 passengers and four flight attendants were unharmed during the two-hour-and-35-minute flight.
About half an hour after the plane took off, the captain asked permission from his second-in-command to rest for a while, with the request being granted.
The co-pilot then took over command of the aircraft, but also inadvertently fell asleep, the report said.
A few minutes after the last recorded transmission by the co-pilot, the area control centre in Jakarta tried to contact the aircraft. It received no answer.
Twenty-eight minutes after the last recorded transmission, the pilot woke up and realised his co-pilot was asleep and that the aircraft was not on the correct flight path.
He immediately woke his colleague up, responded to the calls from Jakarta and corrected the flight path, the report said.
The plane landed safely after the incident.
KNKT urged Batik Air to conduct regular cockpit checks and to ensure that pilots and cabin crew were well-rested before flights. — AFP
