A Batik Air Indonesia pilot and his second-in-command have been accused of allowing the flight they were operating to veer off course — as they both took a snooze in the cockpit midflight.
The January 25 flight, BTK6723, was carrying 153 passengers from Halu Oleo Airport in Kendari to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, according to an official report.
Both pilots, whose names were not included, had just completed a trip in the opposite direction, from Jakarta to Kendari, before they made the return.
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This is when they both fell asleep, the report from Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee said.
Once the return flight to Jakarta took off and the plane had reached a cruising altitude of 36,000 feet, the 32-year-old pilot asked for permission to take a rest, the report said.
After the pilot’s nap, the pilot asked the 28-year-old second-in-command whether he wanted to rest, but the co-pilot said he did not want to.
After a quick chat, the pilot went back to sleep, leaving the second-in-command in control of the aircraft.
While the pilot slept, the co-pilot asked to change the flight path to dodge bad weather, the report said, and was instructed to check in with flight control when they were in the clear.
But the co-pilot then accidentally fell asleep, the report said.
The pilot woke up to find “that the aircraft was not in the correct flight path”, according to the report.
The pilot saw the co-pilot was asleep and woke him.
The flight then continued on course and landed safely in Jakarta, the report said.
No one was injured, and the plane was not damaged.
The report did not mention whether either of the pilots faced disciplinary action.
Batik Air did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Both pilots were cleared to fly before the January 25 flight after blood pressure and heart rate exams were considered normal and alcohol tests came back negative, the report said.
The co-pilot, though, had a busy few days off before the flight, according to the report.
Not only was he a father to one-month-old twins, but he also moved homes in the days before the flight.
He admitted to investigators “that his sleep quality had degraded by the several wakes up” from the babies on the night before the flight.
