Lufthansa plane flew 10 minutes without pilot during medical emergency in 2024

A Lufthansa level flew for astir 10 minutes without a aviator erstwhile the co-pilot became incapacitated portion the skipper was extracurricular the cockpit during a formation past February, according to Spain's Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.

The formation connected Feb. 17, 2024, from Frankfurt, Germany, to Seville, Spain — an Airbus A321 carrying 199 passengers and six unit members — was implicit the Iberian Peninsula erstwhile the skipper near the formation platform to spell to the bathroom. Shortly afterward, the 38-year-old co-pilot "suffered a abrupt and terrible incapacitation," a study from the Ministry of Transport said.

The study yet concluded that the level "flew for astir 10 minutes successful the cruise signifier with the autopilot engaged but without further supervision by either pilot."

When the skipper was finished successful the bathroom, helium could not get backmost into the cockpit, according to the report. The doorway to the cockpit tin lone beryllium opened from the inside, truthful to get backmost in, the skipper would person to participate a codification that would past alert the idiosyncratic wrong the cockpit to unfastened the doorway for them.

The skipper entered the codification respective times but inactive couldn't get into the formation deck. When a unit subordinate tried to interaction the co-pilot from the intercom, determination was nary response. The skipper past utilized the exigency codification — which would person unlocked the doorway aft a abbreviated hold — to effort to get into the formation deck, but earlier the hold expired, the co-pilot opened the doorway from the wrong to fto him in. 

The skipper noticed the co-pilot was "pale, sweating and moving strangely," according to the report, truthful helium was fixed archetypal assistance by a unit subordinate and a doc who happened to beryllium traveling connected the formation arsenic a passenger. That doc diagnosed the co-pilot with a imaginable bosom condition, the study said. 

The probe into the incidental concluded the co-pilot's incapacitation was "the grounds of a neurological information that had not been detected either by the affected idiosyncratic himself oregon successful the erstwhile aeronautical aesculapian examinations."

The study recovered that the co-pilot mislaid consciousness truthful suddenly, helium didn't person clip to pass different unit members.

While the co-pilot was incapacitated, helium inadvertently deed respective switches successful the cockpit, including expanding unit connected 1 of the ft pedals, according to the report. This caused a 2-degree rotation and a 5-degree heading change, some of which were fixed by the plane's autopilot, which remained connected the full time. 

About 2 minutes elapsed from the clip the skipper archetypal tried to get backmost into the cockpit to erstwhile the doorway was yet opened, according to the report.

The skipper diverted the level to the nearest airport, which was Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas Airport, wherever the formation landed safely astir 20 minutes later. The co-pilot did not instrumentality to the cockpit for the remainder of the flight.

The co-pilot's information would not person been recovered during aesculapian screenings unless helium was actively experiencing symptoms astatine the clip oregon had antecedently experienced them, the study said. The co-pilot's aesculapian certificate was suspended aft the flight, with the study noting: "This unwellness is disqualifying for obtaining oregon maintaining aesculapian fittingness to fly."

Lufthansa did not instantly respond to CBS News' petition for comment.

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• Airlines

Kathryn Krupnik contributed to this report.