Air India pilots caught sleeping on the job

[Helmy 0]

Thursday, 26 June 2008

 

Air India pilots caught sleeping on the job

 

An Air India flight headed for Mumbai from Dubai overshot its destination and was halfway to Goa before its dozing pilots were woken out of a deep slumber by air traffic control, a report said.

 

The high altitude nap took place approximately two weeks ago, the Times of India reported Thursday.

 

Some 100 passengers were on board the state-run flight that originated from Dubai and flew to the western Indian city of Jaipur before heading south to Mumbai when both pilots fell asleep, a source told the paper.

 

"After operating an overnight flight, fatigue levels peak -- and so the pilots dozed off after taking off from Jaipur," the source, who was not identified in the report, said.

 

The plane flew to Mumbai on autopilot, but when air traffic there tried to help the aircraft land, the plane ignored their instructions and carried on at full speed towards Goa.

 

"The aircraft should have begun its descent about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Mumbai, but here it was still at cruising altitude. We checked for hijack," the source said.

 

Finally air traffic control buzzed the cockpit and woke up the pilots, who turned the plane around, the report said.

 

When contacted by the newspaper, Air India said it was gathering information on the incident.

 

The manager of Mumbai's airport insisted the aircraft had suffered a "communications failure" and that no napping had taken place.

 

But sources told the daily that authorities were trying to hush up the matter.

 

Drunkenness

 

Indian papers reported this week that a flight operated by private airline Jetlite to the central Indian city of Patna was grounded after the pilot was found to be drunk.

 

Around 50 pilots are grounded each year because they had consumed alcohol before taking a flight, according to India's civil aviation authorities.

 

The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), a body controlling airline operations in India, said dozens of pilots are found to have consumed alcohol during routine pre-medical tests every year.

 

India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world with dozens of new airlines competing with each other everyday, often resulting in pilots forced to fly at short notices.

 

The country has about 4,500-5,000 commercial pilots, and another 2,500 are undergoing training.

 

Civil aviation rules specify that pilots and cabin crew cannot consume alcohol 12 hours before taking a flight.

 

SOURCE : AL ARABIYA NEWS CHANNEL

[Teoh Z Yao 0]

That's amazing...

[Ashmil Abd Ghani 0]

emm amazing but it hard to believe..like cartoon story je..

[Victor Goh 0]

This clearly defines the word "IRRESPONSIBLE".. I mean for the drunk case of course..

 

Hmm.. Dozing off ya.. Interesting.. I wonder, what happens if they continued sleeping, then fuel runs out.. remember Helios' crash? terrible..

[Irni Mastura 0]

Intriguing news. My first thought was maybe a freak accident caused poor ventilation of CO2 in the cockpit which then lead to snooze-yness. (Yes, crazy idea, and yeah.. I made that word up).

 

If they [Air India] do it right I'll assume that there will be full investigations done to analyse and explain the 'eh-terlepas-stesen' situation. We can immediately speculate on human errors based on recent statistics, but without proven facts on the incident, it will still be speculations and calculated guesses. (Still remember my American English professor keep stressing to the class about avoiding 'false generalisation' when writing essays, never knew it became my motto in life hahaha ).

 

But then again, avoiding speculations altogether, its very hard to breed intelligent discussions, be it a healthy one or not. Wasted point of views are sad cases, in my opinion.

 

Anyway, I somehow breathe a relief sigh after reading thru the article. Thank goodness no lives were claimed due to this incident.

[Teoh Z Yao 0]

Just like a simmer putting on a transpacific flight and then going to bed, only to wake up and discover he's not enough miles to descend to LA or San Francisco...

[Helmy 0]

Just like a simmer putting on a transpacific flight and then going to bed, only to wake up and discover he's not enough miles to descend to LA or San Francisco...

 

Hehe.. I did it 2 times so far but wasn't drunk, just sleepy

[Radzi 2]

Caught sleeping....... should check the previous sectors. maybe they were given unrealistic sectors.

 

Normally it is more that that meet the eyes.

[Teoh Z Yao 0]

Hehe.. I did it 2 times so far but wasn't drunk, just sleepy

 

Hehe... I had similar ones a couple of times, too... Not drunk either... Just thought I could take a nap while waiting for the boring cruise to end...

[Khaled 2]

Caught sleeping....... should check the previous sectors. maybe they were given unrealistic sectors.

 

Normally it is more that that meet the eyes.

 

Fully agreed! I went to work when the shops are still closed and finish work with shops already closed. Now I have past my sleeping time, and cannot sleep. damn...i should take part time job as batman la like this.

[Azrin A 2]

Caught sleeping....... should check the previous sectors. maybe they were given unrealistic sectors.

 

Normally it is more that that meet the eyes.

 

I remembered Air Crash Investigation episode on China Airlines Flight 006

 

One point of the investigation was the Captain crossing multiple time zones that eventually led to Captain worn-out (presumably within short time span ?) . That could be one case of unrealistic sector, no?

 

Later the investigators pointed out more errors by the aircrews. Read here for details.

Edited July 2, 2008 by Azrin A

[Chee Yong 0]

Wow, That is dangerous to us as passengers.

[Khaled 2]

Wow, That is dangerous to us as passengers.

 

Don't worry, new aircraft like triple got some sensors whereby it will make some noise if you don't touch certain things within certain times.

 

On older aircraft, we use stewardess as a tool to keep us awake....of course chit chat only...

 

[Chan CS 0]

Don't worry, new aircraft like triple got some sensors whereby it will make some noise if you don't touch certain things within certain times.

 

On older aircraft, we use stewardess as a tool to keep us awake....of course chit chat only...

 

Still remember last time both pilots of Vietnam B777's pilot fall asleep as well? Well it seems those sensors doesn't really work so well... Hehe...