A Lufthansa plane carrying nearly 200 passengers went a frightening 10 minutes without a pilot after the first officer lost consciousness in the cockpit while the captain was off using the bathroom, a probe has found.
The mid-air saga unfolded when the Airbus A321 — carrying 199 passengers and six crew members — was en route from Frankfurt, Germany, to Seville, Spain, in February of last year, according to a report put out by Spanish aviation investigators this week.
The 43-year-old captain, who wasn’t named in the report, said he left the first officer, 38, alone with about 30 minutes of flight time remaining so he could pop to the lavatory — noting that his second-in-command “appeared to be able and alert” at the time.
But when he returned roughly eight minutes later, the pilot said he was unable to access the flight deck despite entering the security door’s access code five times.
When an intercom call to the flight deck went unanswered, the panicked pilot plugged in an emergency code.
Shortly after, the co-pilot came to.
“Before the emergency access code timer expired, the co-pilot opened the flight deck door manually from the inside,” the report stated, adding the captain quickly took control of the plane.
“As the co-pilot was pale, sweating and moving strangely, the captain called for assistance from the cabin crew. The co-pilot was given first aid by the crew and a doctor, who was traveling as a passenger and diagnosed a possible heart condition.”
In the aftermath, the co-pilot told authorities he didn’t know how long he was out for.
“The co-pilot stated that he had lost consciousness and that he couldn’t remember when. Before that, he remembered flying over Zaragoza and, the next thing, he was being attended to by the cabin crew and a doctor,” the report said.
“The loss of consciousness was so sudden that he was unable to warn the other crew members of his incapacitation.”
The aircraft was able to continue flying in a stable manner due to the active autopilot function, the report stated.
During that time, though, the voice recorder recorded strange noises in the cockpit that were consistent with an acute health emergency, according to investigators.
After regaining entry, the pilot opted to divert the plane to Madrid — the closest airport, according to the report.
The first officer was taken to a hospital for evaluation and doctors determined that his “sudden and severe incapacitation” was the result of a seizure disorder caused by a neurological condition, investigators said.
The first officer’s medical certificate was suspended as a precautionary measure.
The Post reached out to Lufthansa about the incident but didn’t hear back immediately.
A Lufthansa spokesperson told German news agency dpa that it was aware of the investigation report and that its own flight safety department had also conducted an investigation.
The company stopped short of disclosing its results.
