DGCA probes Jet Airways flight's 5,000-feet plunge in Turkish airspace

Aviation officials have launched a probe after a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Brussels carrying 280 passengers dropped over 5,000 feet in Turkish airspace while the captain was found taking a nap, said a report.

The captain of the Jet Airways Boeing 777-300 was reportedly taking a nap when the incident took place during a flight from Mumbai to Brussels in August.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has launched the probe after the Boeing Company forwarded a report based on the flight data records.

The data shows the plane dropped 5,000 feet after the co-pilot fiddled with the controls of the plane.

"'This appears to be a serious act of criminal negligence on part of the co-pilot. It wasn't as if the plane went into a free fall and the pilots were unaware of it," a report quoted a senior DGCA official as saying.

The report added that the air traffic controller in Ankara made an emergency call to the pilots to find out why the aircraft had descended from its assigned flight level of 34,000 feet.

The plane would have collided with other aircraft at that altitude since the airspace over Turkey was busier than normal on that day as airlines avoided the conflict zones in Iraq and Ukraine, the report said.

The emergency call from the air controller probably averted a probable disaster.

The crew, however, did not report the incident to DGCA in their post-flight report.

The pilot and the co-pilot have been suspended, pending the outcome of the investigation.

The DGCA is looking into whether the captain's controlled rest was permitted at that time, even as the airlines has also launched it own probe.