Passenger jet pilots found asleep mid-air on two UK flights

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Terrifying results of a new investigation have revealed that at least two UK pilots have fallen asleep while in charge of passenger planes at 35,000ft.

A Freedom of Information request put forward by The Sun newspaper revealed that the men, who both worked for UK airlines, were left alone in the cockpit when co-pilots left the flight deck.

In one of the incidents, the captain left to use the toilet, and then tried to call his first officer on a radio but got no reply.

The captain then used a code to get back in the cockpit and found the pilot "slumped over the controls".

Another pilot, who also found himself unable to get back in the cockpit and had to use the entry code, found his first officer asleep, and had to shake him awake.

In another case highlighted, a third pilot was found asleep in the cockpit when his plane was on the ground.

The Civil Aviation Authority refused to name the airlines, but the British Airlines Pilots Association said the problem is a common one.

It revealed 43 per cent of members polled admitted sleeping in the cockpit, while a third woke to the the other pilot also asleep.

Just last month, pilots' groups raised concerns that new flying hours imposed by the EU could lead to precisely this problem - pilots snoozing on the job, according to the Daily Mail.

Under the new rules, pilots could be landing commercial jets after 22 hours awake - including 11 hours flying, plus stand-by time and travel to the airport.

MPs had warned that 22 hours of wakefulness was "an extraordinary figure", particularly for flying at night, that raised levels of fatigue equivalent to being "drunk".

All the way back in February, pilots warned that the new EU proposals to relax British flying rules could put air passengers' lives at risk.

The pilots' association, Balpa, raised its concerns about the regulation that allows them to land a plane after up to 22 hours at a parliamentary hearing, according to the report in the Guardian.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) wanted to "harmonise safety rules across the continent", looking to create an EU policy.

But Balpa says its plans are not as safe as the current British practise, and that changes to shift patterns and reduced crew requirements on certain long-haul flights could raise the chances of pilots falling asleep in the cockpit.

Balpa called on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to reject the proposals.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, however, approved the rules despite concerns raised in a report by the Commons' Transport Select Committee.

Pilots and airline personnel wearing sleeping masks protested against the proposed new regulations outside the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) back in May in Cologne, Germany (pictured above).

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