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Dublin: 10 °C Tuesday 18 June, 2013

Co-pilot sends plane into near-death plunge while trying to adjust his seat

His pilot colleague saves the day by jumping from the bathroom and halting nosedive of Indian passenger jet.

Don't press that one! Co-pilot accidentally sent plane into nosedive after hitting the wrong control.
Don't press that one! Co-pilot accidentally sent plane into nosedive after hitting the wrong control.

IT CAN EASILY happen. You’re co-piloting an airplane with 113 passengers on board. You want to adjust your seat and you accidentally send the aircraft into a 7,000-ft plunge.

The details of the aerial mishap has been reported by CNN which got information from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The incident, which happened in May, took place on an Air India Express 737 flight. The co-pilot of the flight accidentally hit the control column while trying to adjust his seat, sending the plane into its terrifying nosedive.

The report says that the co-pilot then panicked as the plane dived at a 26 -degree angle but that the pilot managed to grab the controls just in time to right the craft. The pilot had gone to the bathroom when the co-pilot made his mistake. He managed to use an emergency code to get back into the locked cockpit and rescue the plane from its disastrous dive.

If the plane had not been pulled up at that point, it would have broken up, the report added.

Miraculously, no-one was injured in the incident and the pilot told passengers that the plane had dropped into “an air pocket” to explain the sudden loss of altitude. The passengers had been in the middle of a meal on their flight from Dubai to Pune, India on May 25.

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