Two pilots flying a commercial
airliner filled with passengers
were both asleep at the controls
last month, leaving the jet on
autopilot for an unknown
amount of time, British aviation
authorities said.
Authorities have not released the names of the pilots
or the airline, but disclosed that the incident took
place in August aboard an Airbus A330, capable of
carrying up to 350 passengers, operated by a
British-based airline.
The pilots came clean to authorities on their own,
reporting the incident to their airline and the U.K.’s
Civil Aviation Authority.
The pilots said they had received little sleep over two
nights due to busy flight schedules and planned to
rotate taking 20-minute naps, but they discovered
they had both fallen asleep at the same time.
A pilot reported “both members of flight crew had
only 5 hrs sleep in two nights due to longer duty
period with insufficient opportunity to sleep,”
according to a report by the CAA.
The incident sheds new light on pilot fatigue and
international concerns that flight crews receive
insufficient sleep to perform their jobs safely and
effectively.
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