We had a flight engineer last night who thought a planet was another aircraft. We didn't "take evasive action," though. The notion of doing so is ridiculous in a transport category aircraft, especially out over the North Atlantic Tracks.
I saw a fire on the surface below us in a very remote area, and in some of the natural haze that exists there, it didn't look like a fire, and it didn't look like it as on the ground. It had the appearance of climbing toward us. We were in a location where the illusion was more pronounced than normal, in part because of some high terrain, in part because of the atmospheric conditions, and in part because of the location.
Flying the NAT Tracks isn't like a VFR flight across the valley. One doesn't sit there scanning for traffic all the time. It's not possible when looking out to tell if traffic is above or below. One can't visually avoid traffic. Very often traffic appears high, when it's below, and visa versa.
One also doesn't take evasive action in the tracks, save for a TCAS Resolution Advisory. Compromising altitude in the tracks is dangerous and unwise.
I'm not sure why someone needs to sleep while flying the North Atlantic. The flights aren't that long. A typical flight from North America to Europe is about seven or eight hours, depending on departure and destination. Some flights to farther destinations, such as Dubai, are sixteen hours or so. In these cases, additional crew members are carried, and rest provisions are available.
Typically for me a NAT crossing is about eight hours of flying and around fifteen to eighteen hours of duty. Sleeping isn't normally something I'd do, though some crew members do get rest. Given that there's not a lot to do on a crossing other than report position and maintain a plot of the track, it's not unreasonable for someone to rest, but it's also not really a necessity.
The notion of someone waking up and trying to take control of the aircraft, especially altering the altitude by 400' in the Tracks, is extreme. 300' is considered a gross navigational error, as is being off one's ETA over each waypoint by three minutes or more.
I suspect that at least one Canadian pilot is going to be spending a lot more time with those kids that won't let him get any sleep, in the near future. Probably looking for a job for some time to come, too.
