FAA Is Checking Whether Flight Crew Fell Asleep
We've heard about airline pilots falling asleep in flight before, but this report is even stranger than usual -- it was 9 o'clock in the morning, and the flight was a 45-minute hop from Honolulu to Hilo. Local TV station KGMB9 said it obtained a radar track of the flight, which showed it stayed at 21,000 feet and flew past the Hilo airport about 15 miles out to sea before turning around and returning to descend. The FAA confirmed that it is checking into the incident. Air traffic controllers reportedly tried to contact the pilots for 25 minutes and got no response. The airplane, operated by Go! Airlines, landed without incident.
Pilot fatigue has been a growing concern among safety advocates. The NTSB said recently that it has found at least six flights where pilots fell asleep at the controls, including one in which both pilots nodded off on a Frontier Airlines flight from Washington to Denver in 2004. The safety board named pilot fatigue as one of its "most wanted" list of needed safety improvements.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
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2 comments:
Thought you'd like this...Rob Deer.
British plane diverted to Turkey after co-pilot dies mid-flight
Monday, February 25, 2008 6:06 AM
Associated Press
LONDON—A British airline said today that one of its flights was forced to divert to Turkey after the co-pilot died in mid-flight. He died of natural causes, the airline said.
GB Airways said the Airbus A320, carrying 156 passengers from Manchester to Paphos in Cyprus, landed in Istanbul yesterday after what was termed a medical emergency on the flight deck.
The co-pilot was pronounced dead once the plane had landed. His name, age and a specific cause of death were not released.
The airline said passengers were never in danger. They were due to be flown to Cyprus today.
I recently flew on Go airlines. I have flown on many different carriers, and this is by far the worst. Our flight was delayed 90 minutes without explaination. Our return flight was delayed as well. Our luggage was lost. Now, we hear about snoozing pilots! I will never fly with Go airlines again.
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