Pilots are human and their body needs a break ..
Yes a lot of pilots take quick naps or power naps on a lot of flights esp
on the ones more than 2hrs cruise time in the middle of the night.
As long as the other person is informed of the nap and he accepts to handle
both aircraft and communication, its fine.
As per the report, I dont see an issue with Sleeping or Approach Speed.
What I dont understand is on an aircraft like the B738 which is equipped with
VNAV and when the crew can constantly check the vertical profile how come
they ended up high ? (if they did as per the above report).
Especially when the guy on the right seat was also pretty experienced on the
aircraft and assuming he commenced decent when the skipper dozed off.
I know AIX has an issue with FDTLs. What about in this particular incident.
If the pilots were above duty then the blame gets vectored onto an different
heading.
May be the Boeing guys can enlighten me much more..