Pilot falls asleep on the plane TWICE at 35,000ft over the Atlantic
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A pilot nodded off behind the controls of a passenger flight then blamed his UK hotel rooms.
The unnamed captain was flying an Air New Zealand 332-seat Boeing 777 when he fell asleep TWICE for a matter of minutes, it was revealed today.
He reported it to the authorities himself and blasted a top London hotel in a report, complaining he could not sleep because rooms were “too hot or too cold”.
The pilot told how he had three room changes in two days during a London stop-over because of problems with air-conditioning.
He said the lack of sleep, combined with only having a one-night stop in Los Angeles on his initial journey to Britain, lead to him nodding off on the return flight .
In his ‘fatigue report’, he wrote: “I suddenly, and without any warning, fell into a deep sleep on the flight deck.
“Despite the room changes in London, my rest prior to duty was much improved but still not of the highest
quality.
"I was of the belief I had adequate rest and was fit to continue with the rostered duty.”
But delays due to fog at Heathrow saw his flight leave 90 minutes late.
“This added considerably to our workload before we were airborne,” the pilot said.
After he fell asleep twice on the flight deck and had two rests in the plane’s bunk, the pilot said he “felt much better and continued to LAX [Los Angeles airport] without further difficulties”.
A spokeswoman for Air New Zealand said a second pilot in the cockpit had taken control and “safety was not compromised at any point”.
She said: “During the cruise phase of the flight one of the two operating pilots nodded off twice for around a minute and woke spontaneously.”
“The other operating pilot on the flight deck was aware of this and safety was not compromised at any point.”
The firm’s chief executive said he would be investigating.
The November 2011 incident only came to light today in a Freedom of Information request to the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand.
The name of the pilot and the London hotel were both blacked out in the CAA report.
The Air Line Pilots’ Association tonight backed the flyer, saying the incident showed the importance of air crew being “provided with quality hotel rest”.
According to figures from the British pilots’ union, Balpa, one in five UK pilots suffers from fatigue in the cockpit at least once a week.
Half of those questioned said they suffered from “significant fatigue”.
The pilot will not face any disciplinary action as the airline does not wish to discourage pilots from reporting such incidents.
