No one wants to be stuck in a plane for any longer than they have to, but sometimes emergencies happen. Weather can prevent you from landing for a while. We were once diverted to a different airport because of a medical emergency, then went back in the air to land at our intended airport. Sometimes there are just too many planes so everyone has to wait their turn to land.
But last week, a plane full of passengers on an Air Corsica Airbus A320 was stuck circling the airport for an hour for a very different reason – the air traffic controller had fallen asleep.
According to The Times, the plane had been traveling from Paris’ Orly Airport. The aircraft then started descending to Napoléon Bonaparte Airport in Ajaccio, on the French island of Corsica, just after midnight. However radio calls were left unanswered by the only controller at the control tower at the time.
And as if a sleeping ATC person wasn’t bad enough, according to local media outlet Corse Matin, there was also no lighting on the runway.
Ouch!
“The captain then contacted the airport fire department to understand the situation. They were dispatched to the scene but found no response from the tower before alerting the police,” a passenger told the outlet
The pilot flew the plane over the Gulf of Ajaccio. He kept the passengers informed for the entire ordeal, telling them that he would have to divert to Bastia — a city on the island — if there was no communication from the tower.
PC: FlightAware
“We did a little sightseeing,” the pilot said jokingly to Corse Matin. “At no point was there any panic, everyone remained calm.” He even said the passengers treated the incident with a good sense of humor. But he added that, “In my decades of experience, I’ve never had to deal with a situation like this.”
The Times reported that security locks on the air traffic control tower’s doors delayed the process of staff reaching the controller. However, they were eventually able to climb the tower’s steps and gain access. That’s when they found the controller sleeping at his desk.
According to the outlet, after waking him up, he activated the lights for the runway and enabled the plane to land safely.
According to FlightAware, the plane left Paris Orly Airport 27 minutes late at 10:47 p.m. local time. It eventually landed at Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport an hour and 18 minutes late, at 12:35 a.m. on Tuesday.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
