Pilot was snoring before Air India crash

[marmar]

from the Guardian UK:



The pilot of an Air India plane that crash-landed in May, killing 158 people, could be heard snoring heavily on the cockpit voice recorder shortly before the incident, an investigators' report has found.

The official inquiry into the incident on 22 May, when the Boeing 737-800 overshot a hilltop runway at Mangalore in western India and plunged down a ravine, concluded that the Serbian captain was asleep for more than half of the three-hour flight from Dubai and was "disorientated" when he attempted to land the plane.

Listening to the cockpit voice recorder, investigators heard "heavy nasal snoring and breathing" from Zlatko Glusica, said the Hindustan Times, which obtained a copy of the report from the government-appointed court of inquiry. While Glusica had awoken before the landing, he was believed to have had "sleep inertia", the newspaper said.

The crash was India's worst air disaster for more than a decade, with only eight people surviving after leaping from the wreckage before it burst into flames. Most of those on board flight IX-812 were Indian workers returning from Dubai. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/17/sleepy-pilot-blamed-air-india-crash

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. no co-pilot to keep him awake?

[CBGLuthier]

2. From the article comes an answer

The court of inquiry found that Glusica, who had more than 10,000 hours of flying experience, landed the plane 1,500 metres down the 2,400-metre runway at Mangalore's Bajpe airport in heavy rain. He and the co-pilot, HS Ahluwalia, an Indian national, attempted to take off again but failed to gain height and the plane plunged off the edge of the "tabletop" runway into jungle below. Investigators concluded that had Glusica applied emergency braking he could have stopped the plane in time.

[TorchTheWitch]

5. This doesn't explain why the co-pilot didn't wake up the pilot

Neither of them would have to have gone through these emergency manuevers if the pilot was not asleep at the wheel and the co-pilot woke his ass up in time to correctly land the plane.

So again the question... why didn't the co-pilot wake up the pilot in plenty of time to land the plane correctly?

[mnhtnbb]

3. I was a passenger in small plane in Panama one time--sitting behind the co-pilot--

and the pilot fell asleep. He was snoring. We were approaching Panama City (to land at Albrook airport)
and I kept expecting the co-pilot to wake up the pilot. He did nothing. I finally kicked the seat
of the pilot and he woke up and got to work for his landing approach.

I kid you not.

[Recovered Repug]

4. When I die, I want to die in my sleep like my father.

Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

[Zanzobar]

6. And they wanna ban caffeinated booze? C'mon!

[Chulanowa]

7. Caffeinated alcohol just confuses me

It's like the sunday school version of shooting up heroin then doing a line of coke. What's the fucking point?