Part 2 - Fasten your Seat belt

While you were dreaming, so were they.

If you think as an air-traveller, frequent or otherwise, only you can take a nap. You’re wrong. There is always a privileged class onboard.

Imagine you’re flying from Bangkok to Delhi, sipping lukewarm coffee, mildly annoyed at a crying toddler as you want to catch 40 winks. Oblivious of this, the actual pilots are fast asleep, either in business class or in the cockpit, dreaming of mango cocktails and Muay Thai massages.

Or for that matter, after breakfast or meal is served the cabin lights are always dimmed. That’s the declaration “Let’s take a nap”. Not just for you but also the crew and pilots. What?

Then, at times, you see both the pilots emerge from the cockpit, walk up to a kid, an elderly or young woman, say hello or shake hands. You are awestruck, right?

In all these scenarios, it is not God who navigates the plane but the flight is on auto-pilot mode. So is your life.

No, this isn't a satire (well, not entirely).

In 2013, on an Air India flight from Bangkok to Delhi, the pilot and co-pilot both left the cockpit mid-flight, placed the plane on auto-pilot, and went to nap in business class. For 40 minutes, some say 70 minutes.

And then an air stewardess went in to have a look at the world and accidentally disengaged auto-pilot, jolting the aircraft and waking the poor sleepy duo.

No one died, thankfully. The pilots were… suspended. Probably not from hammocks, though they deserved it.

This isn’t a lone instance. Here’s the World Map of In-Flight Snoozing:

In an infamous 2007 incident, two Go! Airlines pilots fell asleep during a flight from Honolulu to Hilo and the plane overshot its destination by 25 miles before air traffic controllers could finally wake the pilots. Luckily the air traffic controllers were not on their dream trip!

In 2008, a Northwest Airlines flight 188, from San Diego, CA with 144 passengers and a crew of five, passed over its destination of Minneapolis, MN at 37,000 feet overshot its destination by 150 miles after pilots reportedly got into a “heated discussion.” Perhaps that “heated discussion” was nothing but blabbering in sleep or arguing over an algebra problem. Nobody knows what that “heated discussion” was about. Luckily, it eventually circled back and landed safely in Minneapolis.

In 2022, both pilots of Batik Air were found to have fallen asleep for 28 minutes during a flight from Sulawesi to Jakarta.

The 32 year old pilot told his co-pilot to take control of the aircraft about half an hour after take off, saying he needed to rest as he was tired from helping care for his newborn twins. The 28-year-old co-pilot agreed but as sleep just like yawn is contagious, he too dozed off by putting the flight on auto-pilot. Finding radio silence for over 28 minutes, the Jakarta air traffic control tried contacting the cockpit of the flight when the lead pilot woke up and realised that his buddy too had fallen asleep.

The Airbus A320 with 153 passengers and crew briefly veered off course but landed safely. The passengers were blissfully unaware — the kind of calm before the nightmare. Then a regular thing happened - the pilots were suspended for two months.

In 2023, An ITA Airways pilot fell asleep mid-flight, ignored radio calls for 10 minutes, prompting terror alerts. Turns out, he was “emotionally distressed”, put the flight on auto-pilot mode and evidently very relaxed.

Now some years ago, an Air India Dubai-Jaipur-Mumbai flight with 100 passengers flew past its destination and was half-way to Goa. The Mumbai air traffic controllers bewildered if the flight has been hijacked, and sounded emergency alarm, jolting the pilot to wake up, take control and land back in Mumbai.

Think Goa, Dream Goa but land in Mumbai.

Now you know when you are flying out why your friends and loved ones wish you “Have a safe flight”?

I know pilots are human. But when you’re soaring at 37,000 feet, a nap should be a passenger’s right — not the pilot’s plan.

So next time you board, maybe don’t just check your seatbelt.

Look left toward the cockpit and whisper, “Sir… you good?”.

Its my turn to whisper, to you :