26 June 2008

Falling Asleep At The Wheel

This is for all of you who fly from here to there a lot!

An Air India flight that was headed to Mumbai from Dubai via Jaipur managed to overshoot Mumbai by a considerable distance and by all accounts was well on the way to Goa. So, what was the deal here? Apparently, after a successful take off, the pilots decided to engage the autopilot and then catch a few zzzzzzs. I am guessing that the intention was to wake up before it was time to start the descent.

However, it turns out that both pilots ended up grabbing a bit of shut eye at the same time. This ended up being a little bit confusing for the air traffic controllers on the ground in Mumbai who were attempting to guide the plane in for landing. Their instructions were receiving no response leading to fears that maybe the plane had been hijacked.

Finally, air traffic controllers were able to wake the pilots who then turned the plane around and headed back to Mumbai.

The flight included 100 passengers.

The investigations continue!

6 comments:

tere616.blogspot.com said...

I thought it only happened in Indonesia with Adam Air, when they landed into city (kupang, if am not mistaken).

The intention was not to take a nap but to do "you know" with the stewardess.

Do they aware that they have carried more than 100 ppl life's ?

Lucky am arrived at Hyderabad instead to Mumbai, when I flew with Air India during my trip to Delhi :-(

Rob Baiton said...

It's just crazy...

Unknown said...

Hey my driver has nodded off at the traffic lights near Pasaraya Grande Blok M. @ 2:30.............
in the afternoon not the bloody morning.
I had to shake him when the lights were green and a thousand horns were blaring.

Rob Baiton said...

That's a bit of a concern...but least you are still on the ground :D

Bram Adimas said...

they should know how many people could be killed by their mistake

Rob Baiton said...

AB...

I think they do and that is the scary part of this story, they simply did not seem to care!