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Air India pilots doze off -- jet wanders off through Indian airspace
Think you're the only one that's tired after that redeye between New York and London? The pilots are too, and they actually have to fly the aircraft back in a couple of days. Good thing they get plenty of rest and drink a ton of coffee to stay alert in the cabin.Or do they? Earlier this month, two pilots on an Air India flight bound for Mumbai fell asleep in the cockpit, completely missing the airport. They were halfway to Goa before air traffic control was able to wake them up. A source close to the incident is quoted as reporting that: "The aircraft should have begun its descent about 100 miles (160km) from Mumbai, but here it was still at cruising altitude. We checked for hijack."
Your guess is as good as mine about how they check for a hijack.
After finally waking up the crew, the aircraft was turned around and pointed back to Mumbai, where the incident is now quietly trying to be brushed under the rug. A local bureaucrat downplayed the incident by suggesting that there was a communications error instead of napping going on in the cockpit. I suppose if you're asleep and can't talk, that's a communication error, right?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nick Hawkins Jun 26th 2008 3:41PM
"This is the tower. Have you been hijacked?"
"Nope."
"That's good enough for us."
Anthony Vicinanza Jun 28th 2008 7:13PM
Airplanes are assigned a descreet transponder code which appears along with altitude on the radar screen of air traffic control. If the pilot changes the code to 7700 it means emergency, 7600 means radio failure and 7500 means hijack. This is commonly available info.
beatofhawaii.com Jun 27th 2008 2:55PM
What Air India and Go! have in common. http://tinyurl.com/5jqfed
BRUCE Jun 28th 2008 4:40PM
EXACTLY RIGHT. Y'ALL WANTED CHEAP FARES, BUT TO DO THAT, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT HAD TO GO WAS THE EXPERIENCED PILOTS. NOW YOU HAVE YOUR 400 PILOTS WHO WORK CHEAP (WHEN THE PENSIONS WERE ELIMINATED, PILOTS STARTED WORKING FOR FREE) BUT PRICES SOARED FROM FUEL PRICES. NOW...IT'S EXPENSIVE AND NO TALENT IN THE FLTIGHTCOCKPITDECK. SIGN ME...EX-AIRLINE PILOT.
chilla Jun 28th 2008 3:10PM
Okay, don't fly Air India. Got it.
BRUCE Jun 28th 2008 4:39PM
HAHAHAHAHAHA...IT'S ALL THE AIRLINES.
Carol Jun 28th 2008 11:22PM
TOO RIGHT!!
david h Jun 28th 2008 3:26PM
Assuming the hijackers allow the pilot to remain flying the aircraft, the pilot sets the transponder to an international 4-digit code alerting the controller to the hijack. The pilot doesn't have to use the radio.
BRUCE Jun 28th 2008 4:39PM
YEAH....BIG SURPRISE.. IT'S 7700. BUT ALL THE HYJACKERS ALREADY KNOW THIS.
Kay malone Jun 28th 2008 3:30PM
Air India sucks for so many reasons, this is just one more! Their "service" is worse I have ever encountered on any airline and I fly the world quite frequently. The crew are all but oblivious to customer needs or requests, I guess they are in a hurry to get back to nap time :)
kitty Jun 28th 2008 3:35PM
That happens, but usually at least one person in the cockpit is awake. A pilots panic moment is when he wakes up in the cockpit, only to find he's the only one awake.
John Crowther Jun 28th 2008 3:33PM
Pilots of a hijacked plane can switch their transponder to a code that appears on the Air Traffic Control radar screen.
H Jun 28th 2008 3:42PM
I'm not discounting the posts that say this airline sucks, nor am I defending the pilots.
I just flew from the midwest US to London this Spring and it was a really long flight. I didn't sleep at all the way there, but that was because I was excited about my trip. On the way back though, I couldn't keep my eyes open. The background noise of the engines and the night sky in combination with the dim cabin lights kept putting me right out.
I'm sure if you regularly made this trip, the temptation to fall asleep would be greatly increased. As trained pilots, I would hope they would know better than to let their bodies get that fatigued, but I sort of understand how it could've happened.
Morgana Jun 28th 2008 4:19PM
A pilot flying the plane...good. A pilot flying the plane and sleeping....not good.
macrosent Jun 28th 2008 4:22PM
So much for researching a story. The controllers could tell by checking his Mode-3 transponder code. The international code for hijack is 7500, no radio is 7600, and emergency is 7700.
TwiliteFlyer Jun 28th 2008 4:33PM
Thanks a whole lot for letting it out on the internet what our squawk codes are as pilots, macrosent. The whole point is to have a PRIVATE code that no hijackers know about. : )
BRUCE Jun 28th 2008 4:43PM
YEAH....LIKE THEY DON'T KNOW THAT.
Ned Jun 28th 2008 5:18PM
I am retired with 34 years of airline service. No accidents, and no bent metal - about two flat tires and the usual - loss of engine power on t/o, loss of A hydraulics at t/o, engine fire and shut down (shorted wire), and the usual little stuff. All handled per the book.
The biggest battle I had to fight was flying out of a city I didn't live in. As in commuting 1/2 half way across the US (two time zones) to go to work. I would be getting up to take out a flight within a few hours of when I had gone to bed the day before. The hardest thing the first day back to work I had to contend with was being bright eyed during the day. It was a lot of coffee and yes I took naps at altitude so I was semi fresh on landing. By the 2nd day the body was acclimated to the new time zone and not so bad for fatigue. In the old days by gone - the stews use to come up and BS at altitude and that helped keep the pilots awake. The smell of perfume and some occassional racy talk was better than coffee for staying awake. smiling
sweet Jun 30th 2008 8:41PM
um, thanks, Ned.. just what I wanted - confirmation- abt that last line... Now the tables are turned on my sweet darlin and he's getting 15 years of payback to see how racy and much fun I can be for guys who wanna pilots wife without all the trouble of a relationship thats bound in marriage... while hes out flying his trips!
smiling, too, like all the time!
ps, maybe they shouldn't be out partying and should actually sleep when they are at the hotel! good idea, no?
BRUCE Jun 28th 2008 7:03PM
wanna play one-up-manship? i live in hawaii, need to fly to the nyc base, then fly anywhere from 10 to 18 hours.....so we're looking at almost 40 hours before my head hits a pillow...... not any more though.... when the pensions went bye-bye....so did i... but under the old rules (grandfathered in) now i make more than a working pilot at my seniority. airlines don't alwats get away with their mis deeds.