CLOSE CALL

Plane With 200 Aboard Flies Across Country Without Pilot

Both pilots unintentionally left the cockpit unattended.

Passengers onboard a Lufthansa flight were shocked to learn that their plane crossed the Spanish border without a single pilot at the controls. More than 200 were on the flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Seville, Spain, investigators have found. The horrific incident happened in 2024 when one captain went to the bathroom just as the Airbus 321 was about to cross the Spanish border, leaving the first officer in charge. The first officer then lost consciousness, and the captain was unable to get back into the cockpit after his trip to the bathroom. He frantically tried to enter the security door’s access code five times while a flight attendant rushed to contact the unconscious co-pilot on the intercom. After 10 long minutes, just as the captain had entered the emergency access code, the first officer was able to recover just enough to open the door. The captain rushed in and immediately noticed his first officer was “pale,” “sweating,” and “moving strangely.” Both the cabin crew and a doctor administered first aid, and the captain diverted to Madrid. The “sudden and severe incapacitation” was the result of an unnoticed seizure condition.