The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of India has suspended two Jet Airways’ pilots and initiated a probe after both of them fell asleep and the plane they were manning plunged 5,000 feet.
The incident took place last Friday when the Boeing 777-300, operating flight 9W-228 from Mumbai to Brussels and onwards to Newark, plunged from 34,000 feet to 29,000 feet while traversing on the busy air route to Europe.
Both pilots were summoned by the DGCA on Wednesday for questioning, the Hindustan Times reports.
Jet Airways is a major Indian airline based in Mumbai. It serves 52 domestic destinations and 21 international destinations. Bangladesh is one of the 19 countries covered by the airways across Asia, Europe and North America.
The DGCA has also set up a three-member team to review the airline's flight training programmes and facilities following the incident, official sources said, 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, they said.
Confirming the incident, an airline spokesperson said Jet Airways has initiated an internal inquiry into the matter.
According to DGCA sources, both the flight’s commander and first officer fell asleep soon after the aircraft entered the Turkish airspace, read the Hindustan Times report.
DGCA sources added that in a bid to hide the serious safety lapse, the pilots did not file the flight safety report (FSR), a mandatory exercise to document any untoward incident during the course of a flight. It even failed to report the matter to the DGCA.
The DFDR or the black box is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating air mishaps probes. It comprises of the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR).
In similar cases earlier, the DGCA has established that both pilots were sleeping by producing snoozing sounds from the CVR.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau asked to conduct a detailed investigation into the incident which could take four to five months.
