Pakistan airlines pilot caught sleeping in business class seat during flight to London

Pakistan International Airlines has come under fire after a pilot on a flight to London was caught napping in the business class cabin while his first officer and a “trainee” flew the plane.

A concerned passenger snapped a photo of the snoozing pilot, Amir Akhtar Hashmi, and complained to cabin crew.

The purser’s report, shared with Pakistani newspaper Dawn, said that the passenger did not “feel safe” while the captain was asleep nearby.

“It had been explained that two other crew members were in the cockpit but he said that he would follow the matter and write down a complaint card as well,” the report concluded.

The incident took place on an Islamabad to London flight on 26 April. There were 305 passengers onboard.

Pilots are required to take breaks on longhaul flights, and it is not unusual for them to move to first or business class to get some sleep while their colleagues fly the plane.

But in this case, Dawn reported, Hashmi was being paid to conduct “training” during flights. Instead of training the third member of crew in the cockpit, he opted to take a rest instead.

While he slept, the plane was flown by first officer Ali Hassan Yazdani and Mohammad Asad Ali – the “trainee” first officer.

​Hashmi is a former president of the Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association. PIA has suspended him from duties while they investigate.

The incident has raised the spectre of Air France flight 447, which crashed on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, killing all 228 on board, when the plane ran into difficulties while the pilot was on a break. The less experienced pilot-in-control took the wrong steps to handle the emergency.

But aviation expert John Walton told The Independent that despite the furore, airlines often roster more than two pilots on long flights to enable them to take turns to get some sleep. The deputy editor of Runway Girl Network said:

"The facts as they appear in local media don’t give me any cause for concern. It’s normal practice for airlines to rotate pilots on longer flights, like Islamabad-London, which clocks in at over eight and a half hours. While some airlines install separate crew rest areas (often above or below the passenger cabin), others offer space in first or business class for pilots not flying to take a comfortable powernap while the relief pilots are in command of the aircraft.

"In this case, local media are reporting that there were three pilots on the aircraft, with at least two in the flight deck at all times. If all three pilots were qualified flight crew, I don’t see any issue with one of them using the business class cabin to get their rostered rest period, although it might be smart for the airline to follow others’ leads and use a placard to mark out flight crew rest seats so passengers aren’t surprised to see uniformed pilots taking a nap."