Flight Drops 5000 Feet as Pilot Sleeps!

Now if by any chance you get anxiety pangs everytime you step on a plane, a mild form of the vague syndrome called the fear of flying, we suggest you sit down while reading this post. Close on the heels of the incident of a rodent infested Air India flight, here¡¯s another mid-air flight scare story to scare the bejesus out of you.

A Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Brussels, carrying around 280 passengers, plunged 5,000 feet while overflying Turkish airspace. Why you ask? Because the pilot was asleep and the co- pilot was busy with the iPad containing flight information.
Before your outraging hormones kick in, let us clarify that the so-called sleep is permissible as per by flight operation procedures.The commander of the Boeing 777 aircraft was taking 'controlled rest', implying a short nap inside the cockpit. As per global airline norms , pilots can take rest in the cockpit by turn on long flights.The co-pilot meanwhile, was working on her iPad or the electronic flight bag(EFB) which has all aircraft documents loaded on to it, according to sources.
With these relaxation inducing activities in place, it seems both of them failed to notice that the plane had plunged from 34,000 feet to 29,000 feet while traversing on the busy air route to Europe.Thank God for the alert regulators at ATC Ankara, who sent an emergency message to the aircraft asking the pilots why they had deviated from the assigned flight path and directed them to climb up to the designated height immediately.
Immediately after the Ankara ATC message, the co-pilot woke up the commander who restored the height of the plane.
The incident might have gone unreported, if it wasn¡¯t for an anonymous tip received by the DGCA¡¯s DG Lalit Gupta through a SMS.And boy, are they angry about the goof up (to put it mildly) or what!

Terming it a "serious incident", the aviation regulator has suspended the two pilots and initiated a probe into the incident. It has also set up a three-member team to review the airline's flight training programmes and facilities, adding the team has been asked to submit their report by August 31. It has directed the airline to come forward with all related reports, as well as the records of the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) within this week.
The regulator is probing how the aircraft dropped 5,000 feet without the co-pilot realizing it. "Was some button pressed wrongly and what was the co-pilot doing ¡ª whether she was watching something on the tablet or she too had dozed off ¡ª needs to be probed," a senior DGCA official told TOI

Confirming the incident, an airline spokesperson said Jet Airways has initiated an internal inquiry into the matter. "The airline is also extending all co-operation in the matter to the DGCA by providing all necessary assistance for the inquiry. Safety is of paramount importance to Jet Airways as is also the welfare of our guests and crew and the airline will always take appropriate steps to ensure the same," the spokesperson said.
Our View
The pilots no doubt are under a lot of stress while flying. But such a glaring error in judgement and carelessness shouldn¡¯t be dismissed as a mere lapse, because they are singularly responsible for the lives of the passengers and crew. We hope the probe is through and fair and it strong fail-proof steps are taken to make sure that such incidents do not repeat in the future.