An Indonesian airline has suspended two pilots after an accident report revealed that they fell asleep during a flight with 153 passengers on board weeks ago.
The accident occurred on a flight of the Indonesian airline “Batek” between Halo Ulyu Airport in Kendari and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta on January 25.
The report said that it was not possible to reach the pilots for about half an hour, and when they woke up, they found that the plane had deviated from its course, according to what the network reported.CBS News“.
The report also stated that the two pilots, whose names were not mentioned, had just completed a flight in the opposite direction, from Jakarta to Kendari, before returning on another flight, during which they fell asleep, according to the website.NBC News“.
The report indicated that as soon as the return flight to Jakarta took off, the 32-year-old pilot asked his co-pilot for permission to take a rest, and he agreed.
After a while, the pilot returned to ask his 28-year-old co-pilot if he also wanted to take a break, but the co-pilot said he did not want to.
After a quick conversation, the pilot went back to sleep, leaving the second-in-command to control the plane.
About 20 minutes later, the accident report said the second pilot also inadvertently fell asleep while the plane was 36,000 feet in the air.
Air traffic controllers and other pilots tried to contact the sleeping pilots to no avail until they responded 28 minutes later and immediately realized the plane was not on the correct flight path, before returning it to its course and landing safely in Jakarta. No one was hurt.
According to the report, the co-pilot is a father of one-month-old twins, and moved to a new home two days before the flight. He told investigators that the day before the trip, he “had to get up several times” to help care for his children.
Batik Air said on Saturday that the pilots had been suspended, according to what Agence France-Presse reported.
The Safety Council recommended that measures be taken to prevent such accidents from happening again.
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