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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."