A lot of pilots would have fallen asleep briefly especially in these sorts of Ops where it's an early morning dep & that drone in smooth air would dull ones senses at times, fatigue is a hideous thing, ALL humans suffer from it!
Amen to that. In another era we flew Lincoln bombers on shipping surveillance Darwin to Townsville via Horn island then followed the coast between 10-50 miles out to sea from Horn island to Townsville. The last 50 miles or so took us on direct track over Palm Island. Total flight time around 8-10 hours depending on ships spotted.
We left Darwin around 2200 with ETA Townsville at sunrise. The crew consisted of two pilots, a navigator and three signallers. I put the co-pilot in the left seat for the last hour or so while I took a much needed nap down the back of the Lincoln leaning against the main spar and using my parachute as a pillow. A sixth sense woke me up with a startle and scrambling to my feet, I headed to the cockpit. There I saw both the radio operator and navigator fast asleep, heads resting on their tables. The co-pilot in the left seat was also slumped asleep with the aircraft on autopilot.
We were IMC at 1500 feet in low cloud and the morning sun was starting to poke through the mist. The co-pilot dicky seat was folded against the fuselage wall so I couldn’t take a seat. From a standing position I shoved the four engines to climb power and pulled back on the copilots control column and shook the co-pilot awake. Within a few seconds we came out on top of cloud at 2000 ft into the bright sunlight. Dead ahead on track by about ten miles was Palm Island.
If that sixth sense had not awakened me we would have likely flown into Palm Island 300 feet below its peak.