Co-Pilot Seat Adjustment Accidently Causes Plane to Plunge a Terrifying 7,000 Feet

Dec. 1, 2010— -- A 25-year-old co-pilot almost killed his 113 passengers when he tried to move his seat and accidently sent the Boeing 737 into a terrifying 7,000-foot plunge.

The unidentified co-pilot on discount airline Air India Express was adjusting his seat forward and inadvertently pressed the control column forward, causing the plane to do a 26-degree nose dive, according to a report from India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation. To put that in perspective, Todd Curtis, director of the Airsafe.com Foundation, told ABC News that the Space Shuttle glides in at the very steep 20-degree angle.

The aircraft's pilot was taking a bathroom break and the co-pilot "got in a panic situation, couldn't control the aircraft or ... open the cockpit door."

The 39-year-old captain then used a secret code to gain entry to the cabin and pull the plane out of its dive. The aircraft would have broken apart if the descent had continued, the aviation agency report said. The aircraft was not damaged, and no one was injured.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that the young co-pilot had not been trained to handle the situation and "probably had no clue to tackle this kind of emergency."

Stay Up to Date on the Latest Travel Trends from ABC News on Twitter

The nearly fatal incident occurred on May 25 on a flight from Dubai to Pune, India.

Three days earlier, another Air India Express plane overshot a runway in southern India, crashed over a cliff and burst into flames. In that crash, at Mangalore's Bajpe airport, 158 people were killed. That flight was also coming from Dubai, and the crash was blamed on a sleepy pilot.

"Although historically, India has a higher rate of crashes than the United States, I don't think this is because of any radical differences in air crews there," Curtis said.