Jakarta opens probe after airline pilots fall asleep mid-flight

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Transport Ministry said on Saturday it would open a probe into local airline Batik Air after two of its pilots were found to have fallen asleep during a recent flight.

A pilot and co-pilot were simultaneously asleep for approximately 28 minutes during a flight from Southeast Sulawesi province to the capital Jakarta on January 25, a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) said.

The incident resulted in a series of navigation errors, but the Airbus A320’s 153 passengers and four flight attendants were unharmed during the two-hour, 35-minute flight.

The Transport Ministry “strongly reprimands” Batik Air over the incident, air transport chief M. Kristi Endah Murni said, calling on airlines to pay more attention to their crew’s rest time.

“We will [begin] an investigation and review of the night flight operation in Indonesia related [to] fatigue risk management for Batik Air and all flight operators,” Kristi said in a statement.

Batik Air said in a statement on Saturday it “operates with adequate rest policy” and was “committed to implement all safety recommendation.”

The pilots involved in the January 25 incident had been suspended, it added.

A spokesman of Lion Air Group, of which Batik Air is a part, did not immediately respond to Agence FrancePresse’s (AFP) request for comment.

The KNKT report, seen by AFP on Friday, was uploaded to the agency’s website in late February.

One of the pilots had not rested adequately on the night before the flight, the report said.

About half an hour after the plane took off, the captain asked permission from his second-in-command to rest for a while, with the request being granted.

The co-pilot then took over command of the aircraft, but also inadvertently fell asleep.

“The second-in-command had one-month twin babies. His wife took care of the babies and he assisted while at home,” the report said.

A few minutes after the last recorded transmission by the copilot, the area control center in Jakarta tried to contact the aircraft. It received no answer.

Twenty-eight minutes after the last recorded transmission, the pilot woke up and realized his co-pilot was asleep and that the aircraft was not on the correct flight path.

He immediately woke his colleague up, responded to the calls from Jakarta and corrected the flight path, the report said.

The plane landed safely after the incident.

Investigators did not identify the pilots, but said they were both Indonesians and were ages 32 and 28.