Did Lack Of Sleep And Skipping Breakfast Cause Pilot To Pass Out At Controls?

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Did Lack Of Sleep And Skipping Breakfast Cause
Pilot To Pass Out At Controls?
There have been times when we may not have had
enough sleep the previous evening or skipped
breakfast before going to work in the morning.
However, there are some professions where not
getting the proper sleep, or reporting in an
empty stomach, sapping you of energy, could have
disastrous consequences. The point was brought
dramatically home recently when it was reported a
trainee pilot in Australia had not slept the
night before and had not had a proper breakfast,
was unconscious for over half an hour, during a
flight.
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The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, otherwise
referred to as the ATSB, carried out a thorough
investigation on the incident, involving a solo
navigation flight departing from Parafield, near
Adelaide to Port Augusta airport in South
Australia. The pilot had been flying for
approximately 40 minutes, at a height of around
5,500ft, when he suffered a headache and turned
on the autopilot. According to reports, just
after relinquishing manual control of the
aircraft, he suddenly fell unconscious. He was
unable to receive calls from air traffic control,
who tried many times to get in touch. In the end,
the pilot had lost consciousness for a period of
around 40 minutes. Fortunately, the aircraft was
seen by a passing plane flying over the sea close
to Adelaide. The other plane noticed the pilot
had woken up and provided his aircraft with an
escort until it safely returned to Parafield,
where he started from. Afterwards, the
investigation revealed the pilot had spoken the
night before the flight about getting over a mild
cold and having trouble sleeping.
It transpired that in the morning prior to taking
off in Parafield, the pilot had not had any
breakfast. The report also said that, during a
stopover in Port Augusta, he had drunk some
water, a bottle of Gatorade and ate a chocolate
bar and that was all.
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The incident has highlighted the risks of fatigue
and lack of energy through missing food, leading
the flight school training the pilot to make
changes. The ATSB has stated that, before a
flight, students have to say how long it has been
since they last ate and what they had. They also
must reveal how much they have slept in the past
two days and if they have had a restless night
prior to a flight. There is no doubt being sleep
deprived, or not eating properly, can affect how
you do your job. It may not always have such
potentially catastrophic consequences, but it can
impact your concentration, drive and energy
levels, affecting your performance. Therefore, it
is important to get the best sleep possible to
function at your full potential. You can
experience the most comfortable, refreshing sleep
by choosing a bed or mattress set from Beds
Glasgow. So, why dont you come to our superstore
and see what we have in stock? We can take the
work out of getting a nights sleep.
The Original article Published at Beds Glasgow
Blog -
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akfast-cause-pilot-to-pass-out-controls/