It’s been more than a decade since this critical travel safety issue made the news here in Hawaii when two pilots slept en route to Hilo. Now it’s happened again, this time with ITA, formerly known as Alitalia. Yesterday it was reported that their flight crew – both pilot and co-pilot, slept as their A330 plane flew unattended. While one was on a scheduled sleep break, investigators said the other one wasn’t. The wide-body A330 flight from NYC to Rome was over France at the time.
After Air Traffic Control lost contact, fighter jets were readied to intercept the plane, and there was concern of a terrorist incident. Luckily, however, the pilots did respond, eventually. Following the incident, the pilot was terminated. Looking back to the incident that took place in Hawaii, the Go! Airlines’ pilots that were sleeping also triggered a terrorist alert at air traffic control.
Pilot fatigue is of growing concern.
In April, both Southwest pilots and those at Delta Airlines asked their companies to deal with pilot fatigue. This is especially important given staffing shortages combined with increased travel demand. The SW pilots’ union said that “fatigue, both acute and cumulative, has become Southwest Airlines’ number-one safety threat.”
Delta Air Lines pilots are also concerned about fatigue. Their pilots’ union said that “too often we are being pushed to our limits as Delta tries to add back flying and capture revenue.” Delta said however, that they are following all federal rules in that regard.
Last year alone, there were 60 fatigue-related mishaps reported to the FAA by pilots. Of course, the actual number of incidents is unknown. Fatigue is considered a leading contributor regarding airline accidents and longer duration flight missions may be one factor associated with increased fatigue.
Sleeping pilots over Hawaii back in focus.
It was in 2008 when the Go! Airlines flight from Honolulu to Hilo, flew right by the airport another 30 miles, as both the pilot and co-pilot slept and the plane was on autopilot. Flight 1002, with 43 people aboard, unintentionally overflew Hilo International Airport at 21k feet and headed out over open ocean before the pilots finally awoke, then changed course and safely landed the plane. Go! Airlines flew interisland from 2006 until 2014.
The pilots told the FAA that it wasn’t unusual for them to sleep the entire 20 minutes of the interisland flight. Yikes! Really? As passengers we put trust in the pilots that they are flying when awake.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
Hi BOH,
Speaking as a flight attendant with 45 yrs service – I’m confused about the ITA flight, as there are 3 pilots on all international commercial flights so while one was on rest break there would have been 2 pilots in flight deck… really usual (and I would believe illegal) to only have three working flight crew. Hmm? Maybe someone out there knows the answer ?
Aloha and thank you!
Hi Cheryl.
Thanks for posing that question.
Aloha.
Why is an Alaska Airline plane shown here when it was an ITA event? Shame on you. Don’t airlines have enough problems these days without false implications?
Doesn’t look like in Alaska plane to me!
Thanks for all you do…..
Hi Steve.
Thanks. That’s one version of the Go!Airlines jet we referenced in the article.
Aloha.