An Ethiopian Airlines flight from Khartoum to Addis Ababa missed its landing on Monday for a very bizarre reason, both its pilots fell asleep during the flight. The plane continued to cruise at 37,000 feet and missed the Bole airport in Addis Ababa causing an alarm on the ground. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) raised an alert after flight ET343 approached the airport but did not make any attempt to descend.
After noticing the abnormal behaviour, ATC tried to contact the pilots several times but to no avail. Once the plane overshot the runway where it was supposed to land, the autopilot disengaged, triggering a siren, that eventually woke the pilots up. The pilots then maneuvered the aircraft back and landed 25 minutes after it was supposed to land in Addis Ababa.
After eventually landing at the airport, the aircraft was kept on the ground for two and a half hours as authorities checked the plane to ensure it is safe for flying again.
Luckily, nobody was hurt due to pilot negligence in the incident and the flight landed safely. Ethiopian Airlines is the largest air carrier in Africa and they have reacted swiftly. Both the pilots are suspended pending an enquiry into the incident. However, the incident has raised questions about the issue of pilot fatigue and how they are overworked.
This is not the first case of pilots falling asleep in the middle of a flight. A similar incident occurred in May when two pilots of Italian airlines ITA Airways fell asleep while flying 38,000 feet above the ground from New York to Rome.
Ethiopian Airlines didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment but an investigation into the reasons behind the incident is currently underway.
