Lufthansa plane flew 10 minutes without pilot during medical emergency in 2024, report finds
CBSN
A Lufthansa plane flew for about 10 minutes without a pilot when the co-pilot became incapacitated while the captain was outside the cockpit during a flight last February, according to Spain's Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.
The flight on Feb. 17, 2024, from Frankfurt, Germany, to Seville, Spain — an Airbus A321 carrying 199 passengers and six crew members — was over the Iberian Peninsula when the captain left the flight deck to go to the bathroom. Shortly afterward, the 38-year-old co-pilot "suffered a sudden and severe incapacitation," a report from the Ministry of Transport said.
The report ultimately concluded that the plane "flew for about 10 minutes in the cruise phase with the autopilot engaged but without additional supervision by either pilot."
