[imagesource:gencraftai]

Indonesia’s transport ministry is having to launch an investigation after two Batik Air pilots fell asleep during a recent flight.

Both the pilot and co-pilot fell asleep at the same time for around 30 minutes during a flight from Kendari in Southeast Sulawesi province to the capital Jakarta on January 25.

Their little nap ended up causing navigational errors as “the aircraft was not in the correct flight path”, according to a preliminary report released Saturday by the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), per CNN.

Thankfully, nothing bad happened and all 153 passengers, plus four flight attendants, were unharmed. As the KNKT preliminary report stated, nobody was injured during the flight, and there was no damage to the aircraft. The flight, BTK6723, lasted two hours and 35 minutes and successfully landed in Jakarta.

Apparently, the second-in-command pilot had notified his co-pilot earlier in the day that he was not able to get “proper rest”.

In the flight before the incident, the second-in-command was able to sleep “for about 30 minutes.” After the aircraft departed Kendari and reached cruising altitude, the pilot-in-command asked for permission to also rest and the second-in-command took over the aircraft. Around 90 minutes into the flight, the second-in-command then “inadvertently fell asleep,” according to the report.

Twelve minutes after the last recorded transmission by the co-pilot, the Jakarta Area Control Centre (ACC) tried to reach the aircraft, but there was no reply from the pilots, it said.

Around 28 minutes after the last recorded transmission, the pilot-in-command woke up and realised the plane was not in the correct flight path. At that point, he woke up the second-in-command and responded to the ACC, it said.

The preliminary report detailed that the pilot-in-command told the ACC that the flight had experienced a “radio communication problem” that had been resolved.

The report does not mention names but identifies the pilot-in-command as a 32-year-old Indonesian male and the second-in-command as a 28-year-old Indonesian male.

The second-in-command had one-month-old twins and “had to wake up several times to help his wife take care of the babies,” the report said.

At least it wasn’t a raucous night out that had the pilots snoozing on the job, like those British Airways crew members who claimed they were mugged when really they were out drinking the night before.

Perhaps there is an argument here to allow new dads to take substantial paternity leave. Otherwise, over 100 people’s lives are potentially at risk because a tired dad is flying a plane.

[source:cnn]