It must be bloody easy to fly a passenger jet.
When Air India's captain B.K. Soni fancied a kip on an April 12 flight from Bangkok to New Delhi, he showed a couple of flight attendants how to keep an eye on the cockpit, popped the Airbus A321 into auto-pilot and wandered back to business class for some shut-eye. Already in business class - and already in the Land of Nod - was his co-pilot, Ravindra Nath.
One of the cabin crew accidentally nudged a switch in the cockpit, shutting down the auto-pilot and sending the dozing duo scrambling for the controls to prevent the plane from crashing.
Of course, it's a terrifying story and could have ended in disaster. But captain Soni's snooze reveals the extent of understandable faith that those really in the know place in aviation electronics: this guy must really have trusted the auto-pilot. And he's the human-pilot.
His scheme for a nap would have worked fine, if it weren't for the crew member. Electronics did their job; the human let him down.
