Air Batik Captain and Copilot Fell Asleep for 28 Min During Flight to Jakarta

businessinsider.com

28 points·belter··6 comments

Betting the copilot gets fired or jailed for what seems to be at least partially a systemic issue with ensuring rested crew. The fact that the pilots reflexively lied about what happened is telling.

Of course the first officer didn't fall asleep on purpose. Incident investigations usually avoid such persecution because it's clear nobody wanted this to happen. The captain was just following procedure by the sound of it.

That they lied about it has more chances of having consequences I think.

"'More than half' of pilots have slept while flying" - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-24296544

Surely this cannot be the only rare occurrence a pilot is feeling sleepy in what seems like a dull environment. White noise, little change in the view outside, awkward wake-up hours, no one to talk to, etc.

So how is that supposed to work? I feel sleepy in my standard office work at times. But me falling asleep is not gonna kill hundreds of people.

How come it all works without ideas like dead man's switch from the trains?

I was going to say that their own lives being at risk probably helps keep them awake. But then I remembered people fall asleep while driving on the highway quite often.

Some more discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39655783

Reply on news.ycombinator.com