14 DAY TRIAL // The Britain's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have received a report about two pilots falling asleep during a long-haul flight in the UK.
The incident took place on August 13 and they were on an Airbus 330 flight to Britain. According to the Independent, the CAA cannot disclose the names of the pilots or that of the airline. The incident has not ended in malfunctions or accidents.
They reported it to the CAA, citing long summer shifts which can lead to disaster. They mention "symptoms of severe fatigue" as the cause of their oversight.
"[The] reporter (almost certainly the captain) suggests both members of flight crew had only five hours sleep in two nights due to longer duty periods with insufficient opportunity to sleep.
"Both crew rested for 20-minute rotations and fell asleep," the document they sent in reads.
One of the crewman woke up and noticed that his partner was also asleep.
"We don't know why the pilots had had so little sleep before this flight. They were taking it in turn to have rest periods, with the one always checking the autopilot and it looks as if both fell asleep at the same time," a CAA spokesman says, noting that they are investigating the incident.
"This was a serious incident but an isolated one. I think lessons will be learnt from this. We are circulating this report within the industry," the spokesman adds.
However, the results of a report conveyed by the Sydney Morning Herald say otherwise.
The study carried out by the British Airline Pilots' Association shows that fifty-six percent of the 500 pilots answering questions have fallen asleep in mid-air. Out of those, 29 percent had their co-pilot sleeping at the same time as them.
The European Aviation Safety Agency has proposed more realistic flight-time limitations, which will be up for a vote by the European Parliament's Transport and Tourism Select Committee on September 30.