A Batik Air flight carrying 153 passengers and four flight attendants had two sleeping pilots at the controls for 28 of its 155 minutes in the air, investigators say. An inquiry into the Indonesian airline has been opened following the January 25 incident, which took place on a flight from South East Sulawesi to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, the Guardian reports. Per a preliminary report by the country's National Transportation Safety Committee, the pilot had not gotten enough sleep the night prior to the flight, and about an hour and a half after takeoff he asked his co-pilot to take over so he could rest. The co-pilot agreed, but with one-month-old twins at home, he, too, was tired and accidentally fell asleep while the captain was still napping.
They were simultaneously asleep for 28 minutes, per the report, after which the captain woke up and realized what had happened—and that the plane had gotten off course. Jakarta's area control center had been trying to get in touch, so he responded to their calls and corrected the flight path. The plane landed safely and no one onboard was harmed in the incident, but the pilots involved, ages 28 and 32, have been temporarily suspended. The country's transport ministry has urged all airlines to ensure pilots have adequate rest before flights, and has "strongly reprimanded" Batik Air, the BBC reports. (More Indonesia stories.)
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