News: Captain and First Officer Asleep During Flight

During a congressional hearing last week it was reported that a captain had filed a form with NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) stating that he and his First Officer (FO) fell asleep during the last 30 minutes of a flight from Baltimore to Denver.

The pilot woke up by "frantic" calls from air traffic controllers warning them they were approaching too fast. The captain then noted they were approaching a point where they were to begin their descent into Denver International Airport (DEN) about 60 miles southeast of there at 35,000 feet, much higher than required, and at Mach .82, or 608 mph, instead of a required slower speed.

The pilot had been switched to three nights in a row of flying the overnight, eight-hour round trip.

Source Non-Mobile: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/
Source Non-Mobile: http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/

Tags: ATC, Airlines, Safety
Technorati Tags: ATC, Airlines, Safety