Inspector Wakes Dozing 767 Pilot

An All Nippon Airways pilot is being tested for a sleep disorder after he nodded off twice on a March flight — with a government flight inspector in the cockpit. In fact it was the inspector, on board for a routine review, who noticed the 50-year-old pilot was dozing about five minutes after the Tokyo-to-Yamaguchi-Ube flight reached altitude. The inspector told the co-pilot, who woke the pilot. A few minutes later, the pilot was back in dreamland and the co-pilot yelled at him to wake him up. “I was bathed by the sun and dozed off in spite of myself,” the unidentified pilot is quoted as telling airline officials, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. There was no mention of drug or alcohol suspicions and the pilot reportedly told officials he’d had seven hours of sleep before working an early-morning flight. The 12,000-hour pilot is being tested for sleep apnea, in which pauses in breathing prevent a full, deep sleep. There were 174 passengers on the Boeing 767.