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The pilot and co-pilot who fell asleep at the controls on their overnight flight
Last updated at 00:07am on 05.11.07Two pilots on an overnight flight fell asleep at the controls of an airline carrying 100 passengers, it emerged yesterday.
The pair were only woken - 20 minutes from landing - by frantic calls from an air traffic controller who noticed they were travelling too fast and too high.
The sleeping incident happened on a flight across the U.S. in 2004, but was revealed publicly only during a Congressional hearing on flight safety at the weekend.
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Two pilots on a 'red eye' flight across the US fell asleep when they were just 20 minutes from landing
The captain of the Airbus A319 admitted he was asleep as his jet approached Denver airport at twice the speed permitted.
He said he and his co-pilot had nodded off during the three-hour 'red eye' flight from Baltimore.
He reported the matter on NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System, which allows flight crew to detail incidents anonymously without fear of disciplinary action.
The pilot wrote: "In the last 45 minutes of flight I fell asleep and so did the first officer. I woke up to frantic calls from ATC (air traffic control). I answered ATC and abided by all instructions to get down. Woke FO (first officer) up."
The pilot said he took the jet to a lower altitude as ordered, then landed "with no further incidents". The passengers on the flight on the 140-capacity plane were unaware of the drama and no one was injured.
The jet was about 60 miles from landing at Denver and travelling at a speed of 608mph - twice the recommended landing approach speed. It was also at 35,000ft which was too high to begin its approach to the landing runway.
It is understood the plane was flying on auto-pilot, but there was no explanation of why the speed and height were so out of line with recommendations.
The airline involved in the incident was not named in the report but Frontier Airlines is the only one that has an overnight flight on that route. A spokesman for the airline refused to comment.
In his comments the pilot said he had been switched to three nights in a row of flying overnight on the eight-hour round trip.
Reader views (5)
As a purser with a major Canadian airline, and also with BEA in the early seventies, one of my functions is to keep an eye on the cockpit for requests for food, drinks etc, but also to see if everything is "OK", the front end cabin attendants are always advised to be aware and check approx every 20 mins if there has been no contact with the pilots.
- John Brennan, Vancouver, B.C. Canada
This is partly the fault of the cabin crew. They are supposed to check the flight deck at intervals not exceeding 20 mins - well that's how it was in my day as a stewardess.
- Steph, Ilford
Happens all the time. The pilots only have to perform the take off and the landing, and even that can be done by computer.
- Jk, London, UK
I expect all the Americans will now be attempting to sue.
- Suzanne, Surrey
Some thirty tears ago a trans-pacific BOAC Boeing 707 had a similar experience. The captain awoke to find his first officer and flight engineer snoring gently!
- Roy Bouchier, Saumur, France
