Both pilots in the cockpit of a Batik Air Airbus A320 fell asleep at the same time during the flight. This is flight ID6723, which was operated on January 25, 2024.
The A320, registration PK-LUV, took off from Kendari, Indonesia at around 8:00 a.m. local time with 153 passengers on board for a domestic flight to Jakarta, the country's capital. At 8:37 the aircraft reached cruising altitude and both pilots removed their helmets.
The captain, with 6.304 flight hours, asked the co-pilot for approval to take a nap. The co-pilot agreed and took control of the plane. Six minutes later he made contact for the first time with the air traffic controller in Jakarta and was instructed to fly to the KURUS waypoint.
Shortly after, the co-pilot also fell asleep, and from here panic set in on the ground. An air traffic controller attempted to contact the pilots of this flight but received no response. Air traffic controllers made several attempts to contact the pilots. In addition, other pilots were asked to contact the aircraft. 28 minutes later, the captain woke up. He soon realized that the A320 was not on the flight course. Then he woke up the co-pilot. The captain told air traffic control that "they had problems with their communications systems."
The aircraft landed safely on the ground at the destination airport after the pilots made course corrections. Following the checks made by the authorities, the communication systems were in perfect working order, showing that the two pilots fell asleep.
It is not yet known how the two pilots will be sanctioned, but it is clear that the airline operator should have taken additional measures to prevent such incidents from happening again.