According to the report, the plane, which was carrying 199 passengers and six crew members, flew for around ten minutes without a pilot in control.
According to a report published on Saturday by the German news agency dpa, a Lufthansa aircraft to Spain last year was pilotless for ten minutes when the co-pilot passed out while he was by himself in the cockpit.
According to a study by the Spanish accident investigation authority CIAIAC, the co-pilot of an Airbus A321 fainted on February 17, 2024, while the captain was in the bathroom during the flight from Frankfurt to Seville, Spain, according to dpa.
According to the report, the plane, which was carrying 199 passengers and six crew members, flew for around ten minutes without a pilot in control.
Lufthansa informed DPA that its own flight safety department had also carried out an investigation and that it was aware of the investigation report. According to DPA, the business did not reveal its findings.
Despite the unconscious co-pilot’s apparent inadvertent control operations, the active autopilot allowed the airplane to continue flying steadily. According to the DPA, during this time, the voice recorder captured odd sounds in the cockpit that were indicative of a serious medical issue.
In order to allow the co-pilot to open the door, the captain first attempted to enter the standard door opening code, which sets off a buzzer in the cockpit. Without being allowed to enter the cockpit, he performed this five times. A stewardess attempted to use the onboard phone to reach the co-pilot.
When the captain finally entered an emergency code, he was able to open the door by himself. But despite being sick, the co-pilot opened the door from the inside just before it would have opened on its own, according to the DPA.
After that, the pilot made the decision to land unexpectedly in Madrid, where his colleague was transported to a hospital.
