Plane flies without pilot for 10 minutes during medical emergency—report
A flight went on without a pilot for 10 minutes as the lone copilot at the time had fainted while the captain was in the lavatory, a report found.
According to a 37-page report from Spain's Civil Aviation Accident and Incident Investigation Commission, the captain of the Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Seville, Spain, briefly left the cockpit to use the lavatory when his copilot fainted on Feb. 17, 2024. A total of 199 passengers and six crew members were aboard the flight.
While the autopilot was engaged and the aircraft remained stable, the copilot inadvertently operated the controls. The voice recorder further captured sounds of the copilot's "sudden and severe incapacitation."
An air traffic controller tried to reach out to the copilot thrice but to no avail.
Meanwhile, after returning from the bathroom, the captain tried to open the cockpit door five times using a standard code, but it wouldn't open.
Even as a cockpit crew member placed an intercom call to the flight deck, access remained denied.
The captain was forced to use an emergency code to regain access to the plane. According to the report, the copilot received first aid from the crew and a doctor traveling as a passenger.
When the copilot regained consciousness, he said he remembered the crew and the doctor treating him.
Amid the incident, the captain diverted the flight to Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, landing in about 20 minutes. The copilot was brought to the hospital after they reached the airport.
Authorities found that the copilot was suffering from a symptom of a preexisting neurological condition that he didn't know he had. It didn't appear during his aeronautical medical examination.
Still, his medical certificate has been suspended following the incident.
Lufthansa told CNN that it had cooperated with Spanish authorities, being aware of the report. The company noted that its flight safety department had also conducted an investigation. It had no additional comments about the report.
The Spanish commission called the incident an “extraordinary circumstance,” while also noting that captains are trained for situations when a fellow pilot becomes incapacitated.
