Two Air India pilots were caught napping in business class while flight attendants in the cockpit accidentally turned off the auto-pilot, a lapse that led to the crew being suspended, news reports and officials said Saturday.
The alleged incident happened at 33,000 feet on an April 12 flight from Bangkok to New Delhi, the Mumbai Mirror reported. The pilots were rattled out of their 40-minute nap and rushed to the cockpit to save the plane from a disaster that could have claimed the lives of 166 people onboard, the report said. According to the report, co-pilot Ravindra Nath was the first to take a break, saying he needed to use the washroom 30 minutes into the flight. Minutes later, Captain BK Soni called another flight attendant into the cockpit and showed the two stewardesses how to operate the controls. He put the plane on auto-pilot and left to join his co-pilot for the nap in business class, the report said. Air India spokesman G Prasada Rao said Captain BK Soni and the two stewardesses had been suspended. He denied the report that the pilots had allowed the two attendants to operate the aircraft. "It is a serious matter. We are investigating the incident," he told dpa. The airline stressed that at "no point in time was the cockpit left unattended by the cockpit crew". Voice of Russia, dpa.
Source: Voice Of Russia
