Both pilots fell asleep
on jet leaving plane in autopilot
One pilot awoke to discover both he and his colleague
had been asleep in the cockpit
Two pilots have admitted both falling
asleep in the cockpit, leaving a 325-seat passenger plane on
auto-pilot.
The incident reportedly occurred on board an Airbus A330
operated by a British based airline on 13 August, shortly after the plane had
taken off.
The co-pilots had allegedly agreed to alternate sleeping
whilst leaving the plane on auto-pilot during the long-haul flight. Instead, one
of the pilots awoke to find they had both been asleep, and did not know how long
the plane had been flying unsupervised for.
The pilots voluntarily
reported the incident to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Airlines must,
by law, report any potentially dangerous conduct to the regulator.
The
report compiled by the CAA, which has chosen not to identify the airline
involved, following the incident said flight crew were suffering from symptoms
of "severe fatigue", according to the Sun.
A spokesman for the CAA said
they would be "very surprised" if any disciplinary action is taken against the
pilots.
"Perhaps the airline in question may have looked at their rosta
or shift system as a result", the spokesperson said.
"In potentially
critical safety situations like this, we aim to learn from what happened and
ensure it will not happen again."
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