MADRID — A Lufthansa flight was flown by autopilot when the copilot, alone in the cockpit as the pilot had stepped away to use the bathroom, fainted, Spanish investigators said in a report about an incident last year that was released on Saturday.
The Airbus A321 flew without a pilot in charge for 10 minutes, the Spanish accident investigation authority CIAIAC said of the flight on February 17, 2024, from Frankfurt to Seville, reported German news agency dpa.
Lufthansa confirmed it was aware of the report and said its flight safety department had conducted an extensive internal investigation into the incident. The company did not disclose the results of its investigation, stating, “We ask for your understanding that we will not comment beyond the investigation report.”
Although the unconscious co-pilot apparently unintentionally operated the controls, the aircraft continued to fly stably thanks to the active autopilot.
The voice recorder captured strange noises in the cockpit during this time which were consistent with an acute medical emergency, the report said.
Some 10 minutes later, the captain managed to open the cockpit security door using an emergency code. He had completed training for such an eventuality a month beforehand.
The captain entered the normal door opening code five times in vain, which triggers a buzzer in the cockpit for the co-pilot to release the door, the report said.
A stewardess tried to contact the co-pilot using the onboard telephone. It is not possible to open these security doors by force as they are designed to prevent hijackings. –BERNAMA-dpa
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