As flagged by The Aviation Herald, Indonesian authorities have just published a report about an incident that happened several weeks back, whereby both pilots of a jet fell asleep, leaving no one at the controls for nearly 30 minutes.
How both pilots of an A320 fell asleep at the same time
This incident happened on January 25, 2024, and involves Batik Air flight ID6723, scheduled to fly from Kendari (KDI) to Jakarta (CGK). The domestic 1,095-mile flight was operated by a six-year-old Airbus A320 with the registration code PK-LUV. The flight had a total of 159 people onboard, including 153 passengers and six crew.
So, what makes this flight notable? Well, there seemed to be a period of up to 28 minutes where both the 32-year-old captain and 28-year-old first officer fell asleep. Here’s how this unfolded, per the report:
- While at a cruising altitude of 36,000 feet, both pilots took off their headsets, and turned up the audio in the cockpit, to hear air traffic control calls
- A lot of airlines allow one pilot to doze off while the other pilot is at the controls (we’re talking about in the cockpit, and not in a situation where there’s a relief pilot); in this case, the captain took a nap, with permission from the first officer
- When the captain woke up, he offered that the first officer could take a nap, but he declined, so the captain kept resting
- During this time, the first officer communicated with both air traffic controllers and the flight attendants; however, about 20 minutes later, the first officer inadvertently fell asleep as well
- 28 minutes after the last communication, the captain woke up and saw the first officer sleeping, so he woke him up
- There had been several calls for the Batik Air flight, so the crew told air traffic controllers that they were having issues with their communications system, and the plane landed in Jakarta without further incident
So, why were the pilots so tired, to the point that neither could stay awake? While that should never be the case, there are some factors at play here.
The captain was on standby on the day prior to this trip, while the first officer had a couple of days off. Furthermore, the first officer had one-month-old twin babies at home, which limited his rest.
You would assume that pilots would be well rested for a fairly short flight departing in the morning, but they actually had a long night. The pilots were flying from Jakarta to Kendari and back the same day, with the outbound being a redeye, and the return being a morning flight. Specifically, they were flying from around 3AM until around 10AM. Both reported having a nap the evening before while at home, but I can understand how they were still fatigued.
This probably happens more often than we know
Some long haul flights have relief pilots, so that each pilot can get a designated rest period. However, even on shorter flights, exhaustion sometimes kicks in. A lot of airlines around the globe allow the concept of controlled rest in the cockpit, with the idea being that one pilot can briefly rest with permission from the other pilot.
I’m sure the thought of that makes a lot passengers uncomfortable, but it’s also not unreasonable. It’s possible to have a flight with just two pilots that’s in darkness the entire way, and where pilots are working on limited sleep. Sometimes a 20-minute nap can do wonders, so everyone is better off if one pilot is alert, while the other pilot recharges their batteries.
But incidents like this are of course exactly what can happen with this concept. If one pilot is exhausted, odds are decent that the other one is as well. This is far from the first time that we’ve heard of a story like this. I imagine that for every incident like this that’s reported, there are multiple incidents that aren’t reported.
After all, this is only discovered when there’s a long lapse in communication, and on many long haul flights, there aren’t radio communications for extended periods of time. Pilots certainly aren’t going to self-report that they fell asleep, and face punishment. As you can see in this incident, even when the pilots were caught, they lied about it and claimed that they were having radio issues.
Indonesia has had its fair share of aviation safety issues over the years. That largely comes down to the pace at which demand for low cost air travel has grown in recent years, meaning you don’t have quite as much experience in the cockpit as in some other countries.
I think Batik Air maybe has some opportunities with optimizing crew scheduling as well, because this is a brutal turn for pilots. It seems like you’re just asking for incidents like this when you schedule crews on a daytime flight after working an overnight flight.
Bottom line
A Batik Air Airbus A320 had an incident whereby both pilots fell asleep at the same time on a domestic flight in Indonesia. While one pilot had permission to sleep, the other pilot then also accidentally fell asleep, leaving a period of up to 28 minutes where both pilots may have been asleep. When the pilots realized their mistake, they lied and claimed they were having radio issues.
What do you make of this Batik Air incident?