Jet Airways Flight Drops 5000 Feet On Auto Mode, While Pilot Was Asleep

New Delhi: It was a close shave for passengers on board Jet Airways Mumbai - Brussles flight 9W228 when the aircraft abruptly dropped 5,000 feet in altitude while the pilot was taking a nap or controlled rest and the co-pilot in command was busy working on her tablet.

On flights that are more than 3 hours long, the DGCA allows pilots to take rest for up to 40 minutes to combat fatigue. In the meantime, the second pilot takes charge of the plane for the duration. The Jet flight was flying at a designated altitude of 34,000 feet in Ankara airspace over Turkey. There was a sudden drop in altitude of 5000 feet without any warning. The Ankara ATC had to make a frantic call to the pilot. However, the co-pilot failed to notice the drop as she was busy on her tablet.

After the call from the ATC, co-pilot woke up the Captain after which the pilot brought the aircraft back to the height of 34,000 feet. "If the aircraft has deviated not by 5,000 feet but even only by 500 feet, any air traffic controller anywhere in the world would have completely tried to inform the pilot immediately," Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said.

Following the incident, the DGCA summoned the pilots and ordered an inquiry. Both the pilots have been suspended and Jet Airways has ordered an internal inquiry into the incident. "This is a bizzare incident. There is an enquiry going on right now, we'll await its report but such things should not have happened," aviation expert Captain Wadia said.

As per the mechanism, the altitude drop can't happen on its own when flight is on auto-pilot mode. In case the auto pilot goes off, a warning is sounded. A warning is also sounded if the altitude drops without the pilot manually changing the level. The Jet Airways pilots missed both these warnings. Every flight is assigned a particular flight path and altitude to travel. It's like a network of roads but in the air. At every level there are several flights operating at any given point in time. An aircraft should not deviate from this route without informing the concerned ATC as it may be in the direct flight path of many other aircrafts which are traveling on the route.

The passengers of flight 9W228 are lucky to be safe but this mid-air scare clearly requires a through investigation.