Indonesia’s transport ministry said it will launch an investigation into local airline Batik Air after two of its pilots were found to have fallen asleep during a recent flight.
A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board (KNKT) shows that the pilot and co-pilot slept concurrently for about 28 minutes in the course of the flight from southeast Sulawesi to the capital Jakarta on January 25.
The incident caused a series of navigation errors, but 153 passengers and 4 flight attendants of the Airbus A320 were unharmed on the 155-minute domestic flight.
The Transport Ministry “strongly reprimands” Batik Air over the incident, said Air Transport Director General M. Kristi Endah Murni, calling on airlines to pay more attention to flight crew rest times.
“We will conduct an investigation and review of night flight operations in Indonesia in relation to fatigue risk management for Batik Air and all airline operators,” Kristi said in a press release.
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Batik Air said in a press release Saturday that it “follows the suitable rest policy” and is “committed to implementing all safety recommendations.”
The statement added that the pilots involved within the January 25 incident had been temporarily suspended.
The KNKT report, obtained by AFP on Friday, was posted on the agency’s website at the tip of February.
The report found that certainly one of the pilots didn’t get adequate rest the night before the flight.
About half an hour after the plane took off, the captain asked his second-in-command for permission to rest for some time, and the request was granted.
The report states that the co-pilot then took command of the plane but additionally inadvertently fell asleep.
“The second-in-command had one-month-old twins. His wife took care of the kids and he helped across the house,” the report reads.
A number of minutes after the co-pilot’s last recorded transmission, the Jakarta area control center tried to contact the plane. No response received.
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Twenty-eight minutes after the last recorded transmission, the pilot woke up and realized that his co-pilot was asleep and the plane was not on the proper flight path.
According to the report, he immediately woke up his friend, received calls from Jakarta and corrected the flight path.
After the incident, the plane landed safely.
Investigators didn’t discover the pilots but said they were each Indonesians, aged 32 and 28.
KNKT insisted Batik Air conducts regular cockpit checks and ensures pilots and cabin crew are well rested before flights.
