TORONTO, Canada (Tue, Apr 17) – A recently revealed report from the Transportation Safety Board shows that a drowsy pilot of Air Canada injured 16 people on board, including 14 passengers and 2 crewmembers, when he mistakenly dived the plane to save the head-on collision with the US military plane.
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| Air Canada plane crash survived luckily as pilot nosedived plane due to flight fatigue |
The 46-second incident, in which the plane with 103 aboard dived and staggered back to original altitude, happened in January last year during an overnight Air Canada flight from Toronto to Zurich. Those injured were not wearing seatbelts, the report said.
According to details based on Board’s reports; the first officer on duty was slumbering, necessary to kill pilot exhaustion during long flight, when the captain's report on their position forced him to get up. A US Air Force plane was heading towards the plane coincidently but almost 300 yards below. The situation set off cockpit alerts, which the captain mentioned to the first officer.
The "confused and disoriented", as described by report, co-pilot thought the other plane was coming straight at them. He dominated the auto-pilot by powerfully pressing on the control column, forcing the jet into a dangerous nosedive.
The captain reclaimed the control of plane after the US
The investigation in-charge Jon Lee told that the incident underlined the challenge of dealing with pilots’ on-flight fatigue. The report further said that the first officer, who had been asleep for about 75 minutes, was suffering "sleep inertia" overblown by fatigue.
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