An air safety agency said an investigation revealed two airline pilots simultaneously fell asleep for nearly 30 minutes during a commercial flight.

The National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), an Indonesian government agency, said a pilot and co-pilot were “simultaneously asleep for approximately 28 minutes during a Batik Air flight from South East Sulawesi to the capital Jakarta on January 25,” AFP News reports.

“Both pilots fall asleep on Batik Air Airbus A320 for 28 minutes in a report published by Indonesian authorities,” Breaking Aviation News & Videos said.

AFP News reports:

The report, seen by AFP on Friday, was uploaded to the agency’s website in late February.

Indonesia is a vast archipelago with a poor air safety record, despite relying heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands.

One of the pilots had not rested adequately on the night before the flight, the report said.

The incident resulted in a series of navigation errors, but the Airbus A320’s 153 passengers and four flight attendants were unharmed during the two-hour-and-35-minute flight.

About half an hour after the plane took off, the captain asked permission from his second-in-command to rest for a while, with the request being granted.

The co-pilot then took over command of the aircraft, but also inadvertently fell asleep, the report said.

“Batik Air flight ID6723, an Airbus A320, was out of radio contact for almost half an hour during a domestic flight in Indonesia with both pilots being asleep. This happened on January 25 on the second leg of a return flight with the copilot as Pilot Flying. The captain was taking a nap with permission from the copilot when the copilot also fell asleep. Contact was restored after the captain woke up,” Aviation Safety Network (ASN) wrote.

“The copilot had advised the captain that he did not have proper rest before the night time flight. His sleep had been interrupted when he assisted his wife to take care of their one-month-old twin-babies.”

From The Star:

A few minutes after the last recorded transmission by the co-pilot, the area control centre in Jakarta tried to contact the aircraft. It received no answer.

Twenty-eight minutes after the last recorded transmission, the pilot woke up and realised his co-pilot was asleep and that the aircraft was not on the correct flight path.

He immediately woke his colleague up, responded to the calls from Jakarta and corrected the flight path, the report said.

The plane landed safely after the incident.

Investigators did not identify the pilots, but said they were both Indonesians and were aged 32 and 28.

KNKT urged Batik Air to create detailed procedures to conduct proper and regular cockpit checks and to ensure that pilots and cabin crew were well-rested before their flights.

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