Indonesia's aviation safety agency is calling on airlines to strengthen cockpit controls and ensure cabin crew get adequate rest before each flight, after two Batik Air pilots fell asleep during a local flight at the end of January which, however, caused no incident.
On January 25, a pilot and co-pilot on board an Airbus A320 fell asleep simultaneously for about 28 minutes during a flight from Sulawesi (north of the country) to the capital Jakarta, according to a preliminary report from the National Committee of transport safety (KNKT).
This report, which AFP became aware of on Friday, was posted online on the agency's website at the end of February.
The device landed without incident
One of the pilots did not get enough rest the night before the flight, the report said, adding that the incident led to a series of navigation errors, but that the 153 passengers and four flight attendants emerged unscathed from this two hour and thirty-five minute journey.
About half an hour after takeoff, the captain asked his co-pilot for permission to rest for a while, which he was granted.
The latter then took the controls of the plane, but also inadvertently fell asleep, the report continues.
Twenty-eight minutes after the last recorded transmission, the pilot woke up and realized that his co-pilot was sleeping and that the plane was not on the correct trajectory.
He immediately woke up his colleague, answered calls from Jakarta and corrected the flight path, according to the report.
The aircraft landed safely after the incident.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago stretching 5,000 km, has a poor aviation safety record, although it relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands.