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Virgin Atlantic cockpit crew sleep thru flight

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Virgin Atlantic cockpit crew sleep thru flight

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Old Sep 26, 2013, 1:02 pm
  #1  
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Virgin Atlantic cockpit crew sleep thru flight

I knew the Virgin folks were pretty laid back, but really!

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/26/travel...sleep-cockpit/
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Old Sep 26, 2013, 2:48 pm
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Nothing wrong with that.
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Old Sep 26, 2013, 3:11 pm
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If I went to work and decided to sleep for a couple of hours I'll be sacked (and I'm not in charged of operating a plane).

Why should it be different for them?
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Old Sep 26, 2013, 4:34 pm
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Tea break? Unless you expect them to work for 14 hours without a break?
I'd rather they had lots of little naps than try to deal with an emergency whist suffering exhaustion from lack of rest.
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Old Sep 26, 2013, 5:18 pm
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I don't sleep at tea break

I agree with you Steve that they need to take a break but there is a difference between taking a break and going to sleep for a while.
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Old Sep 26, 2013, 6:07 pm
  #6  
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This is your Captain sleeping.........

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...autopilot.html
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Old Sep 26, 2013, 6:07 pm
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There really isnt enough information in the article for me to know what really happened - but as a PAX i would not be happy if I knew both pilots were asleep at the same time
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Old Sep 26, 2013, 6:15 pm
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BA pilots would NEVER do this. They're too busy throwing up in the toilets after eating the food
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Old Sep 26, 2013, 7:30 pm
  #9  
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Originally Posted by oliuk
There really isnt enough information in the article for me to know what really happened
Indeed although the CAA do seem to be rather coy about giving out too much information regarding the incident.

Does sound as if they were knackered so I can understand why they'd nod off.
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Old Sep 27, 2013, 7:34 am
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This isn't the first time this has happened, I have trawled the web but can't find anything.....however....

I think it was 2010 (give or take a year). We were in NYC for Halloween ...a day or so before there had been an incident where both pilot and first officer were asleep on duty.

IIRC they overshot the airport. The reason I remember is because at the Halloween party some wag came dressed as an airline pilot complete with alarm clock !

It was a major airline, or subsidiary of on a regional route, I can hazard a guess but don't want to in case I haven't remembered the airline correctly
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Old Sep 27, 2013, 10:19 am
  #11  
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I suppose it's alright as long as the rest of the crew was keeping the autopilot serviced (as depicted in the original "Airplane" film)
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Old Sep 27, 2013, 11:44 am
  #12  
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For some reason it reminds me of these squawks.

This one might be applicable to BA at the moment:

Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on 124.7."
Eastern 702: "Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure ... by the way, as we lifted off, we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of the runway."
Tower: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on 124.7; did you copy the report from Eastern?"
Continental 635: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff and yes, we copied Eastern and we've already notified our caterers."
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Old Sep 27, 2013, 12:34 pm
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Originally Posted by missdimeaner
This isn't the first time this has happened, I have trawled the web but can't find anything.....however....

I think it was 2010 (give or take a year). We were in NYC for Halloween ...a day or so before there had been an incident where both pilot and first officer were asleep on duty.

IIRC they overshot the airport. The reason I remember is because at the Halloween party some wag came dressed as an airline pilot complete with alarm clock !

It was a major airline, or subsidiary of on a regional route, I can hazard a guess but don't want to in case I haven't remembered the airline correctly
They weren't sleeping in that case. They were playing with their laptops. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/dis...-investigation
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Old Sep 28, 2013, 12:54 am
  #14  
 
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CAA now confirms both pilots were NOT asleep at the same time

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...OT-asleep.html
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Old Sep 28, 2013, 2:11 am
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Originally Posted by Seat13F_AC_CRJ
They weren't sleeping in that case. They were playing with their laptops. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/dis...-investigation
Aha! Probably why I couldn't find in on the 'interweb'.

When it was first reported I think there must have been some speculation, I do remember them scrambling/ consider scrambling some sort of military intercept as they were getting no response from the cockpit.

I do think that the current incident has a lot to do with British Pilots and the move to adhere to European regulations, which would mean more hours.

My vote ( if I had one ) would be to stick with current British regulations, making Pilots work for longer seems not to be in the passenger's, ie:ME, best interests.
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