El Al's project to train commercial pilots without background or experience/photo: Yotam Ronen and the Aviator College YouTube, editing: Niv Maoz
Two pilots fell asleep for almost 30 minutes during a flight over Indonesia, according to a Sky News report.
The incident happened on January 25 this year, on a return flight of the Indonesian airline Batik Air from Haluoleo International Airport, in the Southeast Sulawesi region of Indonesia, to Sukarno-Hatta Airport, in the capital, Jakarta.
The two co-pilots, a 28-year-old man and a 32-year-old man, fell asleep for about 28 minutes, according to the initial report by Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Board (KNKT). When they woke up, they found that the plane was "not on the correct flight path."
According to the report, the youngest of the pilots - the first officer - had trouble staying awake, after his wife gave birth to twins in addition to the fact that the family had recently moved.
Batik Air/ShutterStock
The first part of the flight out of the Indonesian capital went without incident, and the young pilot slept for about 30 minutes before waking up for landing.
After landing, the report said the pilots ate noodles in the cockpit, before taking off again.
Then, with 153 passengers and four flight attendants in the cockpit, the pilots climbed to 36,000 feet, at which point the 32-year-old captain told his co-pilot to take command of the plane because he needed to rest.
The young co-pilot agreed, but during the flight he also accidentally fell asleep, when both of them allegedly slept along the flight distance of about 387 km, according to the report. The
air traffic controllers in Jakarta repeatedly tried to contact the cockpit of the Batik Air A320 flight. However, they received no response for 28 minutes until the captain woke up. He then woke up his co-pilot, corrected the flight path, and they were able to land the plane safely in Jakarta.
Batik Air has yet to comment on the incident.
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