Sleeping Pilots Overshot Airport by 359 Miles

[Jason_B]

Yikes. Hope these guys aren't allowed to fly anymore, or start giving them stronger coffee or something.

An Air India flight soared past its Mumbai destination on June 4 as its pilots allegedly dozed off in the cockpit, The Times of India reported Thursday.

The napping pilots flew 359 miles past the airport and were still at cruising altitude when nervous air traffic controllers woke them up.

The flight, which was on autopilot flying toward Mumbai, had about 100 passengers on board.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,372008,00.html

[george_r_1961]

Always nice to hear safety is a priority isnt it?

[Category 5]

Note to self: never fly air india.

[KWT]

Wow seriously even at the speed it travels at that still got to be a good old dose they were having!

[HURAKAN]

The worse part was when the fly attendant said to the crowd, "did you sleep well" and the pilot responded, "yes, very well, thank you."

[tropicana]

this just seems impossible to believe. Just crazy.

-justin-

[HurricaneBill]

"This is your captain speaking. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.........."

[abajan]

Note to self: never fly air india.

Do you think this can only happen on Air India? As crazy as this incident may seem, I think it can happen with any airline (including those based in the US). Nowadays, flight crews are notoriously sleep deprived.

[KWT]

Yeah I agree it probably can happen to any company still to fall asleep for that long isn't good stuff is it really!

[MGC]

I believe this happened to a US crew a few years ago. They flew a couple of hundred miles past Hawaii because both pilots were taking a nap......MGC

[ohiostorm]

It most certainly could happen to US crews. More pilots are getting furloughed and others are working more and more hours, especially with long ground delays lately.

[KWT]

I just wonder how many time this sort of thing has happened, it must happen every now and then and I bet even some of the best of them sometimes have those micronaps which last a few seconds.

[pojo]

you would be surprised what happens when the autopilot is kicked on..... one pilot is SUPPOSED to have positive control of the aircarft/radios when the other is sleeping.... that doesn't always happen.... thankfully on military carriers, all crew positions have ATC up... I've had to stop ordinary conversations because ATC called...

Most commerical pilots work 16 hour days... and have numerous legs... especially the regional carriers... the main carriers do a little less.