Pilots’ mid-air dive leads to suspension. Two pilots who accidentally caused Jet Airways to have a mid-air dive of 5,000 feet over Turkey have been suspended by the DGCA. The mid-air dive, which almost lead to an accident with another plane occurred as both pilots were busy doing other activities. The commander was sleeping and the co-pilot was playing with her tablet. The pilots, crew and the company kept the mid-air dive a secret for 4 days, until an anonymous source reported the incident to authorities.
Two Asian pilots have been suspended after it was revealed that they were responsible for Jet Airways’ mid-air dive last week.
The aircraft had over 280 passengers on board. Last Friday Jet’s B-777-300, which was traveling from Mumbai, India to Brussels, Belgium was scheduled to fly at 34,000 feet. The airplane at some point while over Turkish air space dropped to 29,000 feet.
Vigilant air traffic controllers at Ankara immediately contacted the pilots to know why did they descend to a level, which was assigned to another flight.
The pilot immediately woke up and got 9W-228 back to 34,000 feet and for a strange reason no one ever reported the serious incident to the authorities.
In a press release issued by Lalit Gupta from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) it was revealed that the senior official learned about the incident on Tuesday via an anonymous text message.
The DGCA has interrogated the pilots and thus far it has been revealed that the plane dived as the male pilot was taking a scheduled nap and the female co-pilot was busy playing/working with her iPad tablet and may have fallen asleep at some point.
Both pilots have been suspended as they investigate the matter.
A task force has been put together to find out several things including why did the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, which owns the jet cover up the uncontrolled decedent?
Why did the commanders, the cockpit crew and Ankara ATC choose not to report what occurred?
The detailed investigation, which could take up to 5 months will also be searching to see if the dive was related to any technical issues.
A spokesperson for Etihad Airways said that they are cooperating with the agency and will be conducting their own internal investigation.
This was a close call. Happy everyone is safe.