A passenger plane carrying 250 passengers from New York to Rome, Italy, lost contact with France for 10 minutes, triggering fears of terrorist attacks and almost alerting the French side to send fighter planes to intercept it. Later, it was discovered that the two pilots on board, including the captain, were asleep and did not respond to the call from the control tower. It was just a "false alarm".
According to ABC's report on June 1, the investigators of the flight accident revealed that on April 30 this year, when an ITA airways A330 Airbus took off from Kennedy International Airport in New York and headed for Rome, Italy, and flew 38000 feet over France, the two pilots on board actually fell asleep in the cockpit at the same time.
ABC: when the plane flying from New York to Rome was 38000 feet above the ground, it was said that the two pilots on board fell asleep
The report quoted investigators as saying that when one of the pilots slept at the designated rest time, the captain of the airliner also fell asleep. Air traffic controllers told investigators that they lost contact with the plane for about 10 minutes. Fearing a terrorist attack on the aircraft, they even prepared to send fighter planes to intercept the aircraft. Fortunately, the pilot finally responded. The plane finally landed safely at Rome airport.
In this regard, John NANs, a special aviation analyst of ABC, believes that this situation is "extremely dangerous", especially when pilots are unable to monitor the weather and aircraft fuel conditions. "The plane can still fly automatically, but it is neither wise nor safe," said johnnans.
It is reported that for the accident, ITA Airlines said that the captain claimed that the radio interphone stopped working at that time. However, according to a statement, the investigators found that "there is a great contradiction between the captain's statement and the results of the internal investigation". ITA Airlines said in the statement that the captain's behavior "does not comply with the company's regulations". At present, the company has dismissed the captain.
Screenshot of ABC report video