A plane with 153 passengers diverted from its route after the two pilots dozed for almost half an hour in Indonesia. As a result, the country’s government reported on Saturday (9) that it had opened an investigation to investigate what happened.
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Thus, the case took place on January 25 and involved a Batik Air Airbus A320. According to a preliminary investigation by the Indonesian National Transport Safety Committee, on that day, the pilots made two flights between the cities of Kendari and Jakarta.
During the first flight, to Kendari, the co-pilot told his colleague that he had not rested properly, as he had woken up several times during the night to help his wife take care of newborn twins.
With that, the co-pilot was then allowed to rest and slept for around 30 minutes. The flight landed normally in Kendari.
At around 8 am, local time, the crew headed back to Jakarta. On this flight, the pilot who had remained awake on the previous trip asked to rest.
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According to investigations, around 1h30 into the flight, the copilot, who was in control of the plane, also fell asleep. The control tower tried to contact the aircraft several times, but received no response.
About 28 minutes later, the pilot who had been allowed to rest woke up and noticed that his colleague had also slept. The commander realized that the plane had already deviated from its route.
Furthermore, according to the document from Indonesian authorities, the pilot told the control that the radio had suffered a communication problem. Afterwards, the plane landed normally. Nobody was injured.
Indonesian authorities sent recommendations to Batik Air to strengthen safety procedures.
