A passenger jet pilot fainted mid-flight over Europe, triggering an emergency, after confessing he had not slept the night before take-off. The alarming incident occurred on a Tarom Romanian airline flight during a return trip from the Netherlands to Romania.
Details of the In-Flight Emergency
According to the Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Authority (AIAS), the aircraft departed from Otopeni Airport at 6am as scheduled, en route to Amsterdam. During the outbound flight, the co-pilot reported experiencing health problems. Prior to the return flight, he felt capable of returning to the cockpit but indicated, as a precaution, that he would not take the controls himself.
Approximately 50 minutes after take-off, the 57-year-old co-pilot became sick and fainted as the plane flew over Europe. The other pilot declared a state of emergency and requested immediate medical assistance upon landing in Bucharest, the Romanian capital.
Immediate Aftermath and Passenger Safety
Once the aircraft landed, the 87 passengers on board were escorted out through the rear door. Ambulance workers intervened on the runway to administer first aid to the co-pilot. The AIAS report revealed that the co-pilot boarded the return flight having not slept the previous night.
Following the incident, the employee will only be allowed to perform flights in the presence of an additional captain for the time being. He will also no longer be assigned to night flights or flights lasting longer than two hours. As a third measure, he will no longer be scheduled to work with the other pilot involved in this event.
Broader Context of Pilot Fatigue Incidents
This is not the first time a pilot has fallen asleep while controlling an aircraft. In a similar 2024 incident, a Batik Air plane in Indonesia went off its flight path after both the pilot and co-pilot fell asleep for nearly half an hour.
The January incident saw the pair in the cockpit getting some shuteye as the aircraft drifted off its planned path, potentially leading to a fatal disaster for all 153 passengers on board. It is vital for pilots to keep an aircraft on the right flight path, as it is carefully mapped out by air traffic controllers to ensure the plane does not cross other aircraft's paths.
Analysis of the Indonesian Case
The plane was flying from South East Sulawesi to the capital Jakarta. In this situation, one of the pilots had not rested adequately the night before the flight. About half an hour after take-off, the captain asked permission from his second-in-command to rest for a while, and the co-pilot agreed.
The co-pilot took over command but then fell asleep himself. A few minutes after the last recorded transmission by the co-pilot, the area control centre in Jakarta tried to contact the aircraft and received no answer. Twenty-eight minutes later, the pilot woke up, realised his co-pilot was asleep and that the aircraft was off course, immediately woke his colleague, responded to calls, and corrected the flight path.
The incident resulted in a series of navigation errors, but the Airbus A320's 153 passengers and four flight attendants were unharmed during the two-hour-and-35-minute flight. At the time, the transport ministry released a statement strongly reprimanding Batik Air and calling on airlines to pay more attention to crew rest time before launching an investigation.
