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.
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