Lufthansa Plane With 200 Passengers Flies Without Pilot For 10 Minutes As Co-Pilot Faints
The plane was carrying 200 passengers and six crew members. The Airbus A321 was en route from Frankfurt to Seville in Spain.
A Lufthansa plane was in the air without a pilot for 10 minutes after the co-pilot fainted in the cockpit while the captain was using the bathroom.
The plane was carrying 200 passengers and six crew members. The Airbus A321 was en route from Frankfurt to Seville in Spain in February last year, according to a report put out by Spanish aviation investigators.
The flight was to land in 30 minutes when the captain left for the washroom. As the captain returned after around eight minutes, he was unable to access the flight deck despite entering the security door’s access code five times.
He tried calling the flight deck but his calls went unanswered. The pilot plugged in an emergency code and the co-pilot came there.
"Before the emergency access code timer expired, the co-pilot opened the flight deck door manually from the inside,” the report stated.
The co-pilot was pale, sweating and moving strangely, following which the captain called for assistance. A doctor gave him first aid and diagnosed a possible heart condition. Later, the co-pilot told authorities he didn’t know how long he was out for.
"The co-pilot stated that he had lost consciousness and that he couldn’t remember when. Before that, he remembered flying over Zaragoza and, the next thing, he was being attended to by the cabin crew and a doctor," the report said.
The pilot then diverted the plane to Madrid, and the co-pilot was taken to a hospital for evaluation. Doctors found that his "sudden and severe incapacitation" was the result of a seizure disorder caused by a neurological condition.
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