Two pilots reportedly fell asleep on a flight from New York City to Rome last month while their plane was still in the air with 250 passengers on board, investigators found.
The investigation said both pilots of an ITA Airways flight that departed John F. Kennedy International Airport on 30 April allegedly slept in the cabin while their Airbus 250 was flying 250,000 feet over France.
While a pilot slept during his designated sleep break, the plane’s captain also fell asleep, ABC7 noted.
Air traffic controllers told investigators they lost contact with the plane for about 10 minutes. Amid fears of a terrorist incident, fighter jets were prepared to intercept the plane, but the pilots eventually responded.
John Nance, a contributing aviation analyst for ABC News, called this situation “extremely dangerous,” especially if pilots were unable to monitor weather conditions and the state of the plane’s fuel.
“The plane can still fly on autopilot, but this is not smart or safe,” he said.
ITA Airways, formerly known as Alitalia said the captain claimed the radios stopped working, but investigators found “strong inconsistencies between the statements made by the captain and the result of the internal investigation,” according to a statement.
The Italian airline said in a statement that the captain’s behavior “was not cons Do not comply with the rules dictated by the company”.
The plane still managed to land safely in Rome, and ITA Airways has since fired the captain.
In April, pilots at Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines pushed airlines to address pilot fatigue amid growing travel demand and staffing shortages.
“Fatigue, both acute and cumulative, has become Southwest Airlines’ number one safety threat,” the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, or SWAPA, told airline executives in a letter.
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