A321, en-route, northeast of Madrid Spain, 2024

A321, en-route, northeast of Madrid Spain, 2024

Summary

On 17 February 2024, an Airbus A321 captain was initially unable to re-enter the flight deck after a short absence in cruise. On succeeding, he discovered that the first officer had become incapacitated with what ICAO classifies as a ‘seizure disorder,’ which was subsequently found to have occurred almost immediately after the captain had left. Once back on the flight deck, an emergency was declared with immediate diversion to Madrid Barajas where the first officer was hospitalised. A safety recommendation to consider further assessment of the risks of one pilot being alone on a secured flight deck was made.

Description

On 17 February 2024, an Airbus A321 (D-AISO) operated by Lufthansa on a scheduled international passenger flight from Frankfurt to Seville as LH1140 was en route over northeast Spain when the captain left the flight deck to use the toilet. When he initially tried to re-enter the flight deck eight minutes later, multiple attempts using the correct code failed and there was no response from the flight deck to an intercom call. The captain then used the emergency access code but before it expired, the first officer opened the door manually. On entering after the first officer had been alone in the flight deck for eleven minutes, the captain discovered that the first officer had become incapacitated and appeared ill. The captain declared an emergency, the first officer was removed from the flight deck, and the aircraft diverted to Madrid. The first officer was hospitalised.

The full content of this page is available to registered users only.
Please Log in or Register

SKYbrary Partners:

Safety knowledge contributed by: