One minute after takeoff from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia, the first officer (FO) of an Airbus A320 noticed that the captain was unresponsive. The FO of the Citilink Indonesia flight conducted an emergency return to Surabaya, where the captain was pronounced dead. None of the 171 passengers were injured.
In its final report on the July 21, 2022, serious incident, the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) noted lost opportunities to review the captain’s cardiovascular condition before his death.
Events like this are rare, but the incident closely mirrors a common scenario for airline pilots in simulator training. In this scenario, the instructor privately tells one of the pilots to mimic incapacitation during the takeoff roll or soon thereafter. The other pilot must then handle all flight duties during the resulting emergency.
Return to Airport
According to the NTSC report, the pilots invo…
