TNN
New Delhi, Apr 14: The next time you board a flight, pray that, among other things, the pilots are fully rested and do not doze off at the controls. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has admitted that in India, as across the world, there are instances when both pilots on duty have fallen asleep and overshot destinations.
The issue of pilot fatigue, which the DGCA says is a "serious safety hazard and a contributory factor in accidents/serious incidents", raised concern in India in June last year when both pilots of a Jaipur-Mumbai flight allegedly nodded off and ventured towards Goa.
"There were a few incidents in the recent past in India and worldwide wherein both cockpit crew operating the aircraft fell asleep during the flight. This resulted in aircraft passing over the destination airport," says an air safety circular issued earlier this year by DGCA's joint DG A K Chopra. Without going into specific "incidents", it adds, "pilots did not respond to ATC calls. The situation continued for 15-30 minutes, thereafter, aircraft landed safely. It is felt during this period safety of aircraft and its occupants was compromised."
The circular also suggested measures to avert such lapses due to pilot fatigue: "The cabin crew should interact with pilots at half an hour basis using intercom when crew activity is low. Pilots should keep the area speaker on high volume during low activity period."
In the instance of the Jaipur-Mumbai flight in June last year, the plane did not descend to land and instead, kept flying on cruise altitude towards Goa. It wasn't until the ATC raised an alarm on the SELCAL (selective calling) buzzer that the pilots woke up and did course correction. The aircraft was flying on the Dubai-Jaipur-Mumbai sector.
"Analysis of such incidents reveal that operating crew were affected by micro sleep phenomenon and due to fatigue fell asleep when the crew activity was at its minimum," Chopra's circular says. To avoid recurrence of such incidents in future, he has advised airlines to strictly adhere to flight duty time limitation rules that prescribe the safe rest period and duty time for pilots. The other suggestion is to avoid "multiple landings especially for night departures".