Plane drops 5,000 feet in Turkish airspace as Indian pilot takes nap
The incident took place last Friday when the plane was flying from Mumbai to Brussels. It was claimed that the chief pilot was taking a "controlled rest," or a "nap as per rules," Times of India reported. The co-pilot said she was busy on her tablet and did not notice that the aircraft had lost altitude. Alarmed by the unannounced drop in altitude, Ankara air traffic controller immediately warned the pilots to return to their assigned height. The Turkish airspace has become much more busy after flights take a safer route through Turkey to bypass Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. After the warning, the co-pilot immediately woke up the chief pilot and ascended to the 32,000 feet, Today's Zaman reports. Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was not informed about the situation until its joint DG Lalit Gupta got an anonymous SMS about the "level burst." The two pilots were suspended until the investigation is over. The report quoted a source saying that the chief pilot was taking controlled rest, which means he was sleeping as per global airline norms where pilots take rest in the cockpit by turn on long flights. "The co-pilot, who was supposed to ensure that the aircraft flew steadily on its assigned path, told DGCA investigators that she was on her electronic flight bag (EFB) - a tablet that has all aircraft documents loaded on to it. She did not realize that the aircraft had dropped below its assigned level," the source added. The watchdog is also looking into a possibility that how the co-pilot could not realize when the plane dropped 5,000 feet. "Was some button pressed wrongly and what was the co-pilot doing - whether she was watching something on the tablet or she too had dozed off - needs to be probed," said a senior DGCA official, according to the Times of India.
