A co-pilot sent an international passenger jet into a terrifying nosedive when he adjusted his seat and knocked the control column forward.
He then panicked and was unable to let the captain, who had gone on a toilet break, back into the cockpit as the plane plunged 2,000 metres, reports Gulf News. The Air India Express flight was flying at 37,000 feet from Dubai to Pune airport, in western India, when the near-disaster occurred.
The 25-year-old co-pilot told an inquiry he “got in a panic situation couldn’t control the aircraft, neither open the cockpit door and answer the cabin call.” The captain only saved the Boeing 737 aircraft after using an emergency code to get through the cockpit door and wrestle the controls back from the co-pilot.
When the captain, 39, got back into the cockpit, he shouted “What are you doing?” as cabin crew ordered the 113 terrified passengers to fasten their seatbelts. A report said there was “complete commotion” in the cabin and that passengers were “very much scared and were shouting loudly” as the plane dived steeply and boxes and liquor bottles fell into the aisle.
The plane fell 2,000 feet before the captain got back into the cockpit – and another 5,000 feet as he struggled with the panicking co-pilot. “There was application of opposite force by pilot and copilot on control column,” the report, by India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, said. After the incident, the captain tried to calm passengers by telling them that the aircraft had hit an air pocket. The co-pilot faces ‘appropriate action’, adds the report.
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