A sleepy Air Canada first officer who was waking up from an approved cockpit nap initially mistook the planet Venus for a C-17 and is being cited for a wild ride that hurt 14 passengers and two flight attendants on a flight from Toronto to Zurich in January of 2011. Canada's Transportation Safety Board issued a report Monday that suggests pilot fatigue was behind the FO's decision to throw a Boeing 767-300 into a dive and send unbelted passengers and flight attendants to the ceiling. Seconds later, the flight's startled captain yanked back on the yoke and ensured an uncomfortable return trip for the affected people in the back. Most suffered bumps, bruises and lacerations from their unscheduled contact with aircraft fixtures. Everyone on the back side of the bulletproof door thought turbulence was to blame and some weren't happy to learn a year later that the turbulence was pilot-induced. "No one came on for an announcement and said, 'This is what happened, but everything's OK, or there might be some more turbulence up ahead,'" passenger Ashlyn O'Mara told CBC News
I wonder what if he mistook the C-17 for the planet Venus and did nothing.
