Two pilots of a Batik Air flight carrying 157 passengers fell asleep mid-air leading the aircraft to deviate from its assigned course in Indonesia. The incident came from a preliminary report by Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee over a 28-minute lapse of the flight.
According to reports, the incident occurred in January 2024, following which the Airbus A320 plane also got deviated from its course but landed safely.
Reportedly, the captain of the flight asked his co-pilot to take over the command as he needed to rest. However, the 28-year-old pilot dozed off as he was also tired.
While both the pilots fell asleep, the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) tried to contact them but didn’t receive any response. Around 28 minutes later, the senior pilot woke up and found another pilot sleeping. He later found out that the flight was not on the right course but he managed to bring it back and landed safely with all the passengers.
Following the incident, Indonesia’s aviation regulator pulled up Batik Air for a huge safety lapse and asked the airline to make sure its pilots were properly rested and fit to fly.
Keeping the safety of the passengers and everyone on board, Batik Air emphasized that pilots should be medically fit and should have proper rest before flying.
As per reports, the blood pressure level and heart rates of both the pilots were normal and their alcohol test came back negative. However, the medical test doesn’t detect if the pilot had enough rest or not.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time when Batik Air faced such an issue. Earlier in 2019, the airlines committed a safety lapse, when a flight made an emergency landing after its pilot fainted mid-air.
Ms Kalinga