Aviation
What if the pilot and co-pilot fall asleep during a flight? Then you have a problem, but not a disaster, as the incident with Batik Air earlier this year proves. “Fatigue among pilots is a known problem, but fortunately in Europe there are strict rules that make rest possible.”
It was a short domestic flight, but the two pilots who flew with an Airbus A320 from Indonesia’s Sulawesi to the capital Jakarta on January 25 both fell asleep. The plane flew straight for too long, air traffic control received no response for 28 minutes. But eventually one of the pilots woke up, the plane made a turn and was able to land safely – albeit with some delay. In the aftermath of the incident, the duo has been temporarily suspended.
It’s far from the first time something like this has happened. In 2022, an Ethiopian Airlines plane also flew past its destination with a dozed cockpit. Earlier that year, the French Air Force was even called in when air traffic control was unable to make contact with an Ita Airways flight for a while en route from New York JFK to Rome. It later turned out that the co-pilot rested with permission, after which the pilot also fell asleep.
“Power naps while flying are very common,” says pilot Pieter Brantegem, co-owner of the Skywings aviation school in Antwerp. “We call them controlled rest and they help you feel a little fresher afterwards, just like we sometimes rest on the couch at home. Fatigue among pilots is a known problem, but Europe has strict regulations regarding rest and performance times. Closing your eyes for 20 to 30 minutes is part of this. Of course, in turn and with the permission of the other pilot.”
“As pilots we also have a duty to be rested for work and, if not, to report that we are not fit to fly. We are legally protected, we cannot be fired for that or anything,” says Brantegem. Last year, a documentary on the Dutch public broadcaster revealed that airline staff at several low-cost airlines suffer from excessive workloads and are discouraged from reporting that they are ‘unfit to fly’. “Corporate culture and work pressure indeed also play a role. Luckily I don’t have that experience. I have already canceled myself because I am too tired.”
Yet things can sometimes go wrong here too, as was evident with the Ita Airways flight. “Fortunately, the fact that fighter planes fly next to a scheduled flight to look into the cockpit is very exceptional. Such a drastic measure is mainly intended to check whether a hijacking is taking place – failure to communicate can have several reasons,” notes Brantegem. “Before that happens, there are other safety nets. For example, there are airlines where the cabin crew calls the cockpit every twenty minutes to ask if everything is okay. If there is no answer, they have a protocol to enter the cockpit. Some aircraft also have an alarm system that goes off when pilots have not touched any buttons for a long time. And we can also simply set the alarm on our phone and put it in our pocket.”
Is it harder for pilots to stay awake, with an autopilot that can do more and more? “Flying is stressful during take-off and landing, but especially on long flights there can be some dead moments in between. Although we still have a lot of tasks while the autopilot is flying, such as checking the weather conditions in any alternate airports, and checking the fuel and monitoring systems. In between we drink a coffee, stretch our legs and talk to each other,” says Brantegem. “During very long flights, there are three of us pilots and in the large planes there are even sleeping areas: then we can really sleep for a few hours and that makes a big difference.”
