Seniors: Do You Fall Asleep on Planes?
Are you in the cockpit? DENVER - Two commercial pilots allegedly fell asleep on a flight between Baltimore and Denver, with one pilot waking up to "frantic" calls from air traffic controllers warning them they were approaching the airport at twice the speed allowed. I am ALWAYS nervous about flying, though I do it to get where I cannot get by other means. But this story just about did me in! I am so glad to see I'm not alone about flying...thought I was the only one around. My daughter always looks at me with a jaundiced eye and then tells me to take a tranquilizer! lol
Senior Citizens - 18 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
I'm glad I wasn't on that flight! It's a wonder that plane didn't crash.
2 :
Yikes! What a story! I use to work in the airline industry, so I have trained myself to fall asleep immediately. I wake up and pay attention to the safety briefing (yes, each and every time!) and then go back to sleep only to awake upon landing. It's a great way to travel!
3 :
Yes, I do fall asleep and thank God, I am not a pilot!
4 :
My husband worked for an airline for over 30 years and could never figure out why I hate to fly.....I'm showing him this!!!
5 :
I fall asleep every time....as soon as we hit the air, I am out.....good thing I am not in charge of anyone's life.......hehe actually i do it in the car as well.......I don't sleep well at night, so I sleep every where else........
6 :
No, I'm too busy looking out the window,doing word searches, deciding what kind of soda I want, waiting my turn to go to the bathroom,watching other people walking up and down the aisle. I guess I'm too nervous to sleep!
7 :
This is scary. No I have never slept on a flight.
8 :
Heck no I wouldn't dare! If I don't grip those seat arms with all my might the plane would probably fall out of the sky.
9 :
OH GOOD GRIEF!!! That would be scary!
10 :
Oh, my goodness. That's a fine how do you do. I have a slight reluctance to fly, now we hear this. I have known for a long time, that the pilots go for hours without any sleep. What a close call this was. Thank goodness air traffic controllers were on the ball. Whew!!!
11 :
Nooo! I hate flying.
12 :
An awful story, but no, I don't ever fall asleep on planes. I wish I did ! I just got back yesterday from Egypt, and it took 30 hours of zig-zagging across the world on four different air planes to get home. I tried everything - sleeping pills, eye shade, watching boring inflight movies....but nothing worked. I got home, unpacked, and crashed for 8 hours, had some dinner, and crashed again for the entire night. Thank heavens that is over !
13 :
I used to when I was doing a lot of long distance flying. but now all of the flight that I take are short one.
14 :
I fall asleep on the runway! Taking off. Thank goodness I overcame my fear of flying. This could be due to too things, one total, jet lag (too many flights forward and back in one day) and tiredness, or both 'out on the town' the night before. Random drug and alcohol tests should be introduced for pilots flying both both International and National flights. So, in future, I'm going up to the cockpit, occasionally on flights, ( can't count the number , Ive' lost tract), and pop my head in to see, especially before landing!.
15 :
I love to fly, my husband ( now deceased) worked for Eastern Air Lines as systems analyst for 30 years, so we had flight benefits, round trip was $15.00. The first time I had to pay the whole ticket price I just about had a heart attack. I never sleep on flights though. I have "faked" it if I had an annoying seatmate though.
16 :
Not possible, its a myth I am sure, auto pilot would have disengaged as they entered controlled air space and an alarm would have sounded - beside which the flight attendants are back and forth to the cabin. A call from ATC would not have been about their speed, they would have have been given their vectors when they entered controlled airspace, so sorry it really sounds like one of those myths-
17 :
No unless it is a 12 hr flight over the ocean, then we leave at night so we can sleep. I don't think a pilot has ever fallen asleep, but know some who were plenty hung over so were the stewerdess's many times, flying out of Lake Tahoe in prop planes.
18 :
I tend to agree that this sounds like a legend, but I can't find it at all on urban legend sites. It is on msnbc.com dated yesterday, but is full of words like "alleged" with no corroboration from any source for an event that allegedly happened in 2004. I'm guessing Isotope knows more than the reporters. I can't seem to fall asleep in any moving vehicle.
