How Pilots Sleep on a 17-Hour Flight

January 2024: an Airbus full of passengers flies for 28 minutes with both pilots asleep. So how do pilots actually sleep on 17-20 hour flights? Where is their hidden bedroom, who decides who sleeps when, and why is a planned nap in the cockpit legal in Europe but banned in the US? Chapters: 0:00 Nobody flying the plane for 28 minutes 0:55 Why long flights need four pilots 1:46 The secret bedroom above your head 2:49 Who sleeps when — and why rank doesn't matter 3:56 How to fall asleep on command at 11 km 4:41 When it goes wrong: Indonesia & Ethiopia 5:43 The planned nap that makes flying safer 7:18 22-hour flights are coming 7:40 Who is sleeping on your next flight FOOTAGE & PHOTO CREDITS Stock video: Pexels (pexels.com) contributors. Photos via Wikimedia Commons: "Crew rest on a Boeing 787" — Shahram Sharifi, GFDL 1.2 "Airbus A350-1000 F-WMIL 4" — New York-air, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Boeing 787 Dreamliner Cockpit (flight deck)" — Niklitov, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Batik Air Airbus A320 PK-LZH Perth 2024 (01)" — Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 KvW" — Konstantin von Wedelstaedt, GFDL 1.2 "NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 905 and 911" — NASA/Carla Thomas, Public domain "DOT-FAA Headquarters" — MBisanz, CC BY-SA 3.0 Photos cropped and animated. Some scenes are AI-generated illustrations. Narration: synthetic voice. Sources: KNKT (Indonesia) final report on Batik Air flight ID6723; Aviation Herald (Ethiopian ET343, 2022); FAA 14 CFR Part 117; EASA controlled rest guidance; NASA Ames fatigue countermeasures study (Rosekind et al., 1994); Qantas Project Sunrise. #aviation #pilots #howitworks