In a bizarre mid-air incident that truly left the flight deck feeling high and dry, a Lufthansa Airbus A321 operated for a full 10 minutes without active pilot control. The peculiar event unfolded on February 17, 2024, during a flight from Frankfurt to Seville, leaving 200 passengers in the hands of an unconscious co-pilot and an absent captain.
A recent report by the Spanish accident investigation authority, CIAIAC, has revealed that during the flight, the captain went to the restroom, and at some point during his absence, the co-pilot had fainted. The unconscious co-pilot apparently operated controls unintentionally. Due to the active autopilot mode, the aircraft was able to continue flying in a stable manner.
However, throughout the 10-minute period, the voice recorder recorded strange noises in the cockpit, which were ‘consistent with an acute health emergency’, as stated by the DPA.
When the captain returned, he was initially ‘locked out’ as he tried to enter in the regular manner: a door-opening code which triggers a buzzer in the cockpit so that the co-pilot could safely open the door. However, the captain did so five times in vain. He then informed a stewardess who tried to contact the co-pilot via the onboard telephone.
The captain then typed in an emergency code, which would have given him access to open the door on his own. But just before it would have opened automatically, the co-pilot managed to open the door from the inside despite his poor condition.
The pilot then made an emergency landing in Madrid, and his colleague was taken to a hospital.
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