Dozy pilots sacked after falling asleep and overshooting airport by 15 miles - despite panicked calls from controllers
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Way to Go: Two Go! airlines pilots have been sacked after falling asleep at the controls
It's one thing for passengers on a short flight to grab 40 winks. But it's quite another for both the captain and his co-pilot to take a power nap at 21,000 feet. Last night, two pilots were accused of falling asleep at the controls of a passenger jet and overshooting the airport by 15 miles.
The aircraft was left on auto-pilot as the crew went off the radar and the jet drifted off course over the Pacific.
The captain and his co-pilot have been grounded and are under investigation for allegedly snoozing through 11 calls from air traffic controllers desperate to reach them.
When the skipper finally picked up a call and was asked by a panicked controller if there was anything wrong, he responded: "Uh, no emergency situation."
By that time, Flight 1002, operated by the cut-price go! airline, should have landed after a 30-minute inter-island Hawaiian trip.
Map showing usual airline routes between the Hawaiian islands. The pilots, flying from Honolulu to Hilo, overshot the airport by 15miles
The plane should have started to descend about 60 miles from its destination – Hilo airport on Big Island – after a 214-mile hop from Honolulu on Oahu.
But the plane with 40 passengers on board was still at cruising speed. The only people who apparently hadn't noticed were the few passengers who had grabbed a snooze – and the pilots.
Read more in The Mail on Sunday
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