On August 13th, pilots took a snooze in the cockpit of a 300-passenger airliner on its way to Britain. This plane was 30,000 feet in the air. The CAA wouldn’t reveal any other details of the flight, including the airline, its route or its destination airport.

The pilots complained of having insufficient hours to sleep and they had about 5 hours in 2 days. The CAA reports,”Both crew rested for 20 minute rotations and fell asleep.” This incident occurred when the airliner was on auto pilot for a long distance flight.

The aircraft arrived safely to its destination and they reported that an incident like this hasn’t happened for years. In the next week, the European Parliament is expected to vote on new EU rules regulating pilot flying hours.

I don’t know about you…but I already get anxiety about flying, so this story makes me want to never fly again. If this incident has happened once, then how will they fix the problem? Our lives are in the hands of the pilots and aircraft control when we are in their airliners. How will they make us feel safe in their aircrafts?

In the United States, flights that last longer than eight hours require a relief pilot on board so the pilot can take breaks and if the flight is scheduled to last more than 12 hours, an additional relief pilot must be added. Will the UK be required to change to these rules?