CAA says no Londonderry pilots fell asleep at controls

Gatwick told the paper: “We have carried out a search of the CAA MOR database for reports of pilots falling asleep either en-route to, or departing from Londonderry Airport and have no such reports recorded.”

In August the Sentinel reported how three pilots fell asleep at the cockpit controls on passenger jets flying in or out of London over the past fifteen years.

At the time of the report the most recent incident was believed to have occurred on June 10, 2011, on a large Boeing 767 that was on its way to Greece.

But it’s since emerged two pilots fell asleep at the controls of a UK-operated Airbus A330 during a long haul flight on August 13 this year.

The Sentinel recently asked the CAA for details of any reports of pilots falling asleep where City of Derry Airport was the inbound or outbound airport.

Over the past four years there were none.

There were, however, seven laser attacks, a near miss between a passenger jet and light aircraft over the city and two crashes amongst twenty-six incidents in the Londonderry area reported to the CAA over the past four years.