Caught On Tape: Sleeping Pilot

[dArKeR]

Erick Ballard, a passenger on the Walkers Aviation plane, used his video camera to film the captain napping during an international flight from the Bahamas to Fort Lauderdale.

"I'd say the whole flight, about fifteen minutes after we got up in the air, until about five to ten minutes before we started to land. That's when he woke up,” Ballard said.

"The people in front of me actually noticed it first, and pointed it out to us, and everybody was taking pictures, so I got out my video camera and got some footage of him sleeping."

Ballard said passengers began to laugh, and so did the co-pilot of the plane.

But Ballard, a paramedic by profession, said the seriousness of the situation was clear to him immediately. The pilot's in-flight nap was putting the lives of the fifteen passengers at risk.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/17/national/main563855.shtml

It's hard for me to believe this story. Why didn't any passengers wake him up? So to be a conspriacy dope! Just like I can't accept the Shoe Bomber not going into the bathroom in privacy to detonate his bombe. And for bring sulfur matches instead of a butane lighter. Where in the world can you even find sulfur mathces? CIA headquaters in Saudia Arabia?

[Pale_Rider]

1. Risk of flying small regional airlines ...

... sometimes a bit too lax. Maybe the pilot was sleeping off a drunk? (Could have been dangerous waking him up.) Wonder if a drug test was conducted on the pilot before the company fired him?

[October]

3. That's a hell of an accusation

[w4rma]

6. Nah, he was most likely just tired from being overworked

or he stayed up a little longer than he should have the night before.

[GAspnes]

2. There was a co-pilot

presumably doing something like co-piloting.

Lazy, yes. Dangerous, no.

(And ask Mr. Paramedic how many times he's snagged a nap sitting in the bus on the graveyard shift.)

[Pale_Rider]

4. How long does it take to fly ...

... between Bahamas and Fort Lauderdale? Did the pilot actually slept long enough to get restful sleep? I would hope he would be ready and wide awake for the takeoff and landing. Don't want a groggy and obviously fatigued pilot taking-off or landing the plane. Are you fully awake after 15 minutes from waking up?

http://www.alliedpilots.org/Public/Topics/ArchivedTopics/FTDT/Archive/faa_more_rest.asp

Pilots warn that a tired captain in the cockpit could make a catastrophic error. The airlines cite FAA rules requiring that pilots not fly if they may endanger life or property.

"If a pilot becomes fatigued, he or she is obligated by law in the interest of public safety to notify that airline and remove himself or herself from duty," said Michael Wascom, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the trade group for the major airlines.

"Certainly, all of our member airlines support their pilots on those decisions. We want rested pilots who are safely capable of performing their duties."

IMHO ... a frequent intercontintental air traveller.

[trof]

7. I've napped

for 15-30 minutes, sitting in my cockpit seat, on long, all-nighter passenger flights. It's amazing how much it refreshes you, especially an hour or so before landing, when you really need to be "up".

When I went with a cargo airline, we actually had a bunk room on the upper deck of our 747. The 3 man crew would take turns getting a 1-2 hour nap on the all-nighters.

Turn yourself in for fatigue? Yeah...right. You'd be looking for another job pretty quick, especially if working for a small carrier like Walker.

[LeftHander]

10. Flight length

From Ft. Lauderdale to Bahammas!

90 minutes approx.

[MattNC]

5. and we want to arm these guys? n/t

[TrogL]

8. the dangers of auto-pilot

On a sunny day it gets surprisingly warm in the cockpit because of all that glass. It's easy to nod off. At least the co-pilot was still awake. There's an apocryphal story of an entire flight crew nodding off during a trans-Atlantic flight.

The problem is that the modern flight deck makes the pilot almost irrelevant. You key your entire flight plan into the auto-pilot at the beginning of the flight and it goes into affect at wheels-up. You spend the rest of your time monitoring - something humans are poor at.

Pilots used to be able to invite passengers into the cockpit to chat in order to break up the boredom, but with new regulations in place due to 9-11 even this is forbidden. Once your paperwork is done, there's not much else to do to keep you busy.

[trof]

9. It was a United crew

a few years ago. All nighter from east coast to west.
L.A. Center finally roused them westbound over the Pacific about 100 miles west of L.A.

[Noordam]

11. A it is legal for one of the two pilots on "international flights"

to sleep. Normally this is LONG international flights.

b) I just watched a DVD of train travel in Australia and they talked of the large button the engineer had to hit every 10 minutes. They did not say what would happen if he did not hit it BUT......

[Noordam]

12. A it is legal for one of the two pilots on "international flights"

to sleep. Normally this is LONG international flights.

b) I just watched a DVD of train travel in Australia and they talked of the large button the engineer had to hit every 10 minutes. They did not say what would happen if he did not hit it BUT......

[mefoolonhill]

13. sleeping pilot

Subsequent news reports have confirmed that the sleeping pilot was none other than President GW Bush....

[karlschneider]

14. Hee, good one. But seriously, this story is being hyped way out of

proportion. Aside from a slight safety factor and FAA regulations, there really isn't even a need for 2 pilots on most modern aircraft. Only one person at a time is necessary for cruise flight...hell, I've taken naps when I was the ONLY pilot a few times.