Fortunately, the incident did not cause any damage, but the emotion remains great.
The Indonesian Ministry of Transport announced this Saturday the opening of an investigation into the local airline Batik Air.
At the end of January, two of their pilots fell asleep during a flight, deviating from their trajectory, but without causing any damage.
“We will conduct an investigation and review of night flight operations in Indonesia related to fatigue risk management for Batik Air and all airline operators,” Kristi Endah Murni, director general of air transport at the Indonesian Airlines, said in a statement. Ministry of transportation.
He “strongly reprimanded” Batik Air following the incident and called on airlines to be attentive to the quality and duration of crew rest time.
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Indonesia's aviation safety agency on Friday called on airlines to strengthen controls within cockpits and ensure that cabin crew have sufficient rest before each flight.
One effect, one of the two pilots in the incident had not rested sufficiently the night before the flight, according to the report from the National Transport Safety Committee (KNKT), consulted by AFP.
For its part, Batik Air indicated this Saturday in a press release that it followed “an adequate rest policy” and that it was “committed to implementing all safety recommendations”.
The two pilots, aged 32 and 28 respectively and both Indonesian, were temporarily suspended, the company added.
One of the pilots not sufficiently rested
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 the KNKT.
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.
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The incident led to a series of navigation errors, but the 153 passengers and four flight attendants escaped the two-hour and thirty-five minute journey unscathed.
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.