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Snoozing Pilot Mistakes Venus For Aircraft; Panic, Injuries Ensue

Posted by Soulskill on from the to-be-fair-they-do-look-a-lot-alike dept.

Cazekiel writes "In January 2011, an Air Canada Boeing 767 carrying 95 passengers and eight crew members was on route to Zurich from Toronto when its First Officer, fatigued and disoriented from a long nap he'd taken, panicked in seeing what he believed to be a U.S. cargo plane on a collision course with his aircraft. The panicking F.O. pushed forward on the control column to make a rapid descent. Only, it wasn't an aircraft he'd been looking at, but Venus. According to the article: 'The airliner dropped about 400 feet before the captain pulled back on the control column. Fourteen passengers and two crew were hurt, and seven needed hospital treatment. None were wearing seat belts, even though the seat-belt sign was on.' The only danger in this situation had been the F.O. napping for 75 minutes instead of the maximum 40, as the disorientation and confusion stemming from deeper sleep was the culprit in this mix-up. However, the Air Canada Pilots Association, 'has long pressured authorities to take the stresses of night flying into account when setting the maximum hours a pilot can work,' taking into account that North Atlantic night-flights are hardest on an already-fatigued pilot."

24 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Air Canada? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Were many beavers injured?

    1. Re:Air Canada? by jenic · · Score: 5, Funny

      Beavers aside, I don't actually see what the problem is. What if the situation were reversed? Way, way worse.

      You mean if Venus mistook the pilot for another planet?

  2. Shame they don't have cabin video by Zaelath · · Score: 5, Funny

    then they could just show video of what happens if you don't use your seatbelt on an aircraft to that 10% of idiots that know better instead of the boring safety talk.

    1. Re:Shame they don't have cabin video by mug+funky · · Score: 5, Funny

      true enough, but have you ever been stuck in the toilet when turbulence strikes? not fun.

      having to change a baby during turbulence is quite fun, but a little scary (baby was fine - i was bouncing around and the little bugger was giggling at me).

    2. Re:Shame they don't have cabin video by GumphMaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No video, but some nice photos at page 189-190 of http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/3532398/ao2008070.pdf (5.6MB)

      --
      Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
    3. Re:Shame they don't have cabin video by Oswald · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but the composition is a bit off because the baby was holding the camera.

  3. New safety message by GeneralSecretary · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mesdames et Messieurs, dans le cas d'une collision interplanétaire s'il vous plaît attachez vos ceintures ... Ladies and Gentlemen, in the event of an interplanetary collision please fasten your seatbelts...

  4. Thankfully Not... by nemui-chan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Luckily it wasn't in America. If it was, the TSA would stop allowing pilots through checkpoints, since they're clearly a flight risk.

    1. Re:Thankfully Not... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      100% of all planes involved in terrorist attacks, hijackings and crashes have had pilots on board! when will government make us safe from these terrors of the skies!

    2. Re:Thankfully Not... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They also had wings too - OMG so do birds!

    3. Re:Thankfully Not... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'd be more suspicious of Venus... clearly it was trying to take down a passenger aircraft, the classic cowardly maneuver of a terrorist. And it is a known hoarder of deadly chemicals used in the manufacture of WMD. Who knows how far along it's program already is, since it has never allowed IAEA inspectors beneath it's all-concealing clouds?!

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  5. Is this a bad thing? by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Personally, I'd prefer my pilots to take evasive action when they feel its neccessary, and not pick up a habit of second guessing themselves to avoid bad PR. Yes, passengers were injured, but TFA notes that the seatbelt light was on.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
    1. Re:Is this a bad thing? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes it's a bad thing for pilots to sleep longer than they're supposed to because they're overworked, then panic because they just woke up from deep sleep and so can't tell the difference between an airplane and a planet despite being well experienced to tell the difference when awake.

      The problem isn't that when the pilot thought he was about to hit another aircraft he took an evasive maneuver.

      The problem is the circumstances that resulted in him mistaking Venus for an aircraft he was about to crash into.

      What if his evasive actions had caused him to crash into an actual airplane that was at a lower altitude which he didn't notice because, again, he'd just woken from a deep sleep?

      The whole point is that his judgment was temporarily impaired because he was fucking groggy, and you're asking "is this a bad thing?" Yes! Yes it is!

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    2. Re:Is this a bad thing? by geekmux · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Personally, I'd prefer my pilots to take evasive action when they feel its neccessary, and not pick up a habit of second guessing themselves to avoid bad PR. Yes, passengers were injured, but TFA notes that the seatbelt light was on.

      "However, the Air Canada Pilots Association, 'has long pressured authorities to take the stresses of night flying into account when setting the maximum hours a pilot can work,' taking into account that North Atlantic night-flights are hardest on an already-fatigued pilot."

      Personally, I'd prefer my safety authorities actually listen to the men and women doing the damn job, and realize they could have likely prevented this from happening in the first place.

    3. Re:Is this a bad thing? by WankersRevenge · · Score: 5, Funny

      I can totally sympathize with this pilot. True story .. I was driving through Yukon a few years ago and I had been on the road for twelve hours that I could barely stay awake so I pulled off in a rest area, climbed in the back seat, and fell asleep.

      At some point, another driver pulled into the rest area and his lights woke me up. All I saw were trees and I thought I had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed in the woods. I panicked. I climed out of my sleeping bag, climbed into the front seat, started my car, and pulled a 360 before I realized what the hell was going on. The other driver probably thought I was nuts.

      Moral of the story ... Thank god I'm not a pilot :)

  6. c'mon, think about the alternative! by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everyone is piling on this guy now, but think about what would have happened if he'd actually HIT Venus - nobody would have survived that! Think, people, THINK!

  7. Venus was incidental by cratermoon · · Score: 5, Informative

    The media reports are all harping on the idea of "crash dive to avoid Venus", but that's incidential. There was an oncoming aircraft (but not on a collision course) and the FO erred in thinking it was going to collide. Source - TSB report.

    1. Re:Venus was incidental by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Mod parent up. Venus had nothing to do with it.

      First officer saw Venus, alerted captain. Captain pointed out that was Venus, pointed to actual oncoming aircraft. First officer misinterpreted altitude of actual oncoming aircraft, dived.

  8. Re:air canada is a terrible carrier by mug+funky · · Score: 5, Informative

    emirates = hot hostesses and the option to watch the front-mounted camera on the entertainment system. with all the chaos of landing, it's comforting to know you're not going to run into the terminal.

  9. Not Venus, sensationalism at its best by __aazsst3756 · · Score: 5, Informative

    He did not take evasive action to avoid Venus, but did point to Venus and briefly discussed if it was an aircraft when he first woke up. He later made the evasive maneuver when he misjudged the position of another aircraft. The two events are only connected by the fact the pilot was entirely too exhausted.

  10. Re:No seatbelts? by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 5, Informative

    its not a LAWFUL ORDER you fucking MORON. it a request. you can ignore it.
    crew are not LEOs. they cant issue lawful orders.

    Federal Aviation Regulations require passenger compliance with lighted passenger information signs and crewmember instructions concerning the use of safety belts.

    So sit down, buckle your seat belt, and STFU.

    --
    Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
  11. Re:radar... by inglorion_on_the_net · · Score: 5, Informative

    As far as I know, commercial aircraft have never had radar to detect traffic. They do usually have weather radar, but that's for detecting bad weather, not traffic.

    There is TCAS, but I don't see how that would have avoided this. Sure, the pilot could have thought "TCAS doesn't say anything is there, so I'll just continue on", but is that really what you expect a panicked pilot to do?

    Also, avoiding anyway is probably the right response: safety systems do fail, and you're not going to score any points by saying "but TCAS didn't say there was any danger" if there is a real collision, because you and your passengers will be dead.

    The real story is that operating vehicles while impaired causes accidents. We know this. That's why we regulate it; there are limits on how many hours in a row you can work, how much sleep you must have had, how much alcohol can be in your blood, and more. Apparently, it wasn't enough to prevent this incident.

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  12. Please read the actual report. by colonel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please, please, please -- there are tons of very well-considered safety points in the real report, and the linked articles are very very very wrong.

    http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/aviation/2011/a11f0012/a11f0012.asp

    To quote:

    At 0155, the captain made a mandatory position report with the Shanwick Oceanic control centre. This aroused the FO. The FO had rested for 75 minutes but reported not feeling altogether well. Coincidentally, an opposite–direction United States Air Force Boeing C–17 at 34 000 feet appeared as a traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) target on the navigational display (ND). The captain apprised the FO of this traffic.

    Over the next minute or so, the captain adjusted the map scale on the ND in order to view the TCAS target 5 and occasionally looked out the forward windscreen to acquire the aircraft visually. The FO initially mistook the planet Venus for an aircraft but the captain advised again that the target was at the 12 o'clock position and 1000 feet below. The captain of ACA878 and the oncoming aircraft crew flashed their landing lights. The FO continued to scan visually for the aircraft. When the FO saw the oncoming aircraft, the FO interpreted its position as being above and descending towards them. The FO reacted to the perceived imminent collision by pushing forward on the control column. The captain, who was monitoring TCAS target on the ND, observed the control column moving forward and the altimeter beginning to show a decrease in altitude. The captain immediately disconnected the autopilot and pulled back on the control column to regain altitude. It was at this time the oncoming aircraft passed beneath ACA878. The TCAS did not produce a traffic or resolution advisory.

  13. Re:radar... by colonel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Lots of facts wrong. . .

    First Officer woke up. Captain said "hey, sleepyhead, you see that Air Force cargo plane coming towards us that the TCAS is telling us about?" First Officer points, "That thing?", "No, that's Venus, the Air Force cargo is lower." "Oh. Ah! It's coming right at me!" (Dives instinctively)

    All within a couple of seconds after waking from 75 minutes of REM sleep in his chair, groggy as hell.

    http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/aviation/2011/a11f0012/a11f0012.asp