The 50-year-old All Nippon Airways pilot has been grounded pending an internal probe ordered by industry regulators, the company said April 30.

ANA said that the 174 passengers on Flight 693 from Tokyo to Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, were never in danger because the Boeing 767-300 was flying on autopilot at the time of the March 23 incident.

The company described the incident, nevertheless, as "extremely regrettable."

According to ANA, the pilot started to doze off five minutes after the aircraft had reached its cruising altitude of about 12,000 meters and the autopilot had been engaged.

A Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry official on board for a routine inspection noticed and alerted the copilot, who woke the pilot. But the pilot nodded off again a few minutes later, prompting the copilot to yell at him.

The airline is investigating the incident to determine whether the pilot was negligent or suffers from a sleep disorder.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 8, 2004
(C) All rights reserved