I have to drive all time for my work, and I’ve been behind the wheel with little to no sleep before, once I confused an airplane with an alien ship, other times I start to doze off and look at the stars and think they are all moving in different directions. This is usually not too bad, but it can be very dangerous, and that’s why you should take breaks between drive times. Yes, it sounds like stupid advice, but it really works.
But being sleepy in a car, is a ride in the park when you compare it to being sleepy inside a 767 plane and you confuse a planet for another plane then send your plane into a nosedive to try and avoid collision.
According to Reuters a “sleepy Air Canada pilot” was staring out the front window of his plane when he caught a glimpse of Venus, confused it with another plane that was coming straight at his plane, then sent his plane into a nose dive to avoid collision
“Under the effects of significant sleep inertia (when performance and situational awareness are degraded immediately after waking up), the first officer perceived the oncoming aircraft as being on a collision course and began a descent to avoid it,” Canada’s Transportation Safety Board said.
I can see how this is making the news, especially with a title where a pilot confuses a planet with a plane, but the fact of the matter is that this pilot took the necessary actions to avoid a collision. Yes, he might of confused a planet for a plane, but imagine what hell he would be getting for crashing a plane into a plane? The plane descended 400 feet downwards and caused several people to jump out of their seats, 7 of them were taken to the hospital, but they will recover.
None of the less, this is another example of how grueling a pilot’s job can be and how fatigue affects everyone in the fields. OR it’s another example of a pilot thinking quick while almost crashing a plane for doing inappropriate things inside a cockpit. – OMG You just bumped into the lever! Quick, we need an excuse as to why we hurt so many people!… let’s just say we confused a planet with a plane, never heard that before, so it’s going to work. [Reuters Img Credit: Favim]