DENVER — A commercial pilot and his first officer fell asleep while approaching Denver International Airport in an A319 Airbus jet, going twice the speed as allowed, according to a federal safety Web site.
The incident, which occurred on March 4, 2004, was one of several incidents that was brought out during a congressional hearing on airline safety in Washington this week.
Rep. Bart Gordon , D-Tenn., wanted to know why this information was available on a public Web site where pilots anonymously report the incidents themselves, while NASA wasn’t willing to release it as part of a larger survey.
“Missed all the calls from Air Traffic Control to meet crossing restrictions (where pilots have to be at a certain altitude at a certain location) at the DANDD intersection (the intersection in the sky) in the southeast corridor to Denver. The crossing restriction to be at DANDD was to be at flight level 19,000 and 250 knots. Instead we crossed DANDD at 35,000 feet at Mach .82 (approximately 590 mph),” the pilot continued. That means that the aircraft was speeding towards DIA’s crowded airspace with no one awake at the wheel. “I woke up, why I don’t know, and heard frantic calls from Air Traffic Control approximately 5 nautical miles inside DANDD (about 5 miles past DANND),” the pilot said. “I answered Air Traffic Control and abided by all instructions to get down. Woke first officer up, started down to flight level 22,000 feet as instructed … Landed in Denver with no further incidents,” the pilot wrote.
I sleep like a baby when I fly, apparently I’m not alone.
And even so… Air travel is STILL safer than taking a bath.
Falling asleep in a bath could be dangerous.
Oops.
Banzia the friendly skies!!!!
Only other thing I woulndt want to hear is the pilot over the pa sayy ‘oooppss!’
Holy Clark Griswald Batman no wonder my wife is afraid to fly.
The pilot said his schedule had been switched to three nights in a row of flying “red eye” flights. So, I guess this bus driver has never heard of coffee? Good Grief!
Even better is a crazy FO who decides to kill the cockpit lights, cover the glass and tag you with “total electrical failure.” That will wake you up!
http://cagematch.dvorak.org/index.php/topic,2712.0.html
well, you know what they say about the A319/320/321 series?
It was designed for a one dog one pilot cockpit. The pilot to feed the dog, the dog to bite the pilot in case he touches anything. So effectively, this crew worked as designed.
pj
I fell asleep once on takeoff–but I was the co-pilot, we were past 10K Feet, and I said “I’ve gotta take a nap. Wake me If I’m needed.”
That was after my first trip to Rio De Janiero and I didn’t get back for 20 years. That was fun, but kinda embarassing. Would I have gone to bed if I was the pilot in command? – – – yes.
I heard about this last week, very cool indeed.
Time to upgrade the auto-pilots with alarm clocks.
Actually, it wouldn’t take much to re-program the auto-pilot to begin descent at a certain point. Also, should a klaxon sound when the DANDD is passed by a few miles?
Also, I loved this part of the report: “I woke up, why I don’t know, and heard frantic calls from Air Traffic Control” Captain – you woke up because you heard “frantic calls”. The subconscious works that way, ya know…
I’d love to be a professional pilot. Flying sims has always been a love of mine, I have perfect eyesight, know aviation basics, and then some. However, those kids need something to do when they return from Iraq with depleted-Uranium poisoning…
7, 9,
The problem with automatic systems that bypass the pilot is that SOMETIMES the pilot actually has to make decisions to fly the plane that may not be in the flight computer’s capacity to “understand”.
In 1998 a brand-new Airbus A320 crashed during an airshow flyby. The pilot claims the aircraft “fought” him and that it interpreted his low flyby run as a landing attempt and refused to let him pull up, causing the aircraft to run into the ground in front of the spectators.
http://portal.aircraft-info.net/downloads-file-1-4-details.html
Airbus claimed pilot error but the aircraft’s original black box (a substitute was orinally foisted off on investigators) was never found.
I’d take a fallible human that can think outside of the box over a machine that can only react to situations the programmers thought of. I am all for automated systems but the pilot should always have the last say when it comes to maneuvering the aircraft.
#10, Hi, Alix! the pilot should always have the last say when it comes to maneuvering the aircraft.
He does, by fed. law FAR 91.3 (if memory serves) — that’s why he’s the Pilot In Command, whether it’s a Cessna 172 or a Boeing Dreamliner.
http://cagematch.dvorak.org/index.php/topic,1918.0.html
Any of 10,000 things to go wrong (and they often do) and the PIC is asleep?? What does the T-shirt say? “My 1st flight to DIA and I survi” I can’t believe those morani weren’t fired on the spot.
Most bothersome is that this happened 2 1/2 YEARS ago. So now we find out about it, what else has happened that we are unaware of?
I flew in ’98 with a person who was absolutely terrified of flying. The word got out and the pilots gave the ‘fraidicat’ a tour of the cockpit and this ended up being extremely reassuring. What’s the point? Allowing the pilots to be “social” during down time likely makes a HUGE difference re their involvement (vs sleeping in a locked cloister). THIS IS ANOTHER result of terrorism over-reaction. (AT least let them surf the web or something during down times).
doc
That town puts me asleep too!
And people wonder why I take the train.
That’s the cool difference between airplanes and big trucks; at least in a plane there is an auto pilot that keeps things straight and level while the pilot nods off for a “quickie”, while the road maintenance people get cranky when you run a big truck out through the median and screw up the “Tourist Trap” landscaping. I read somewhere that it was a common occurrence for the flight crews of the Pacific long haulers to all be sound asleep in the cockpit. I doubt it hurt anything, as there ain’t nothing out there but miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.