Two Ethiopian Airlines Pilots of passenger airplane-, Flight ET343 travelling from Khartoum to Addis Ababa on Monday August 15, -fell asleep mid-flight but were able to successfully land the plane after the autopilot alarm went off.
According to Mail Online, the airplane during the time of the incident was at 37,000 ft.
The pilots were meant to begin their descent to Addis Ababa Bole Airport.
Aviation Herald reported that Air Traffic Control attempted to contact the pilots but were unsuccessful. Later, the crew awoke, after the aircraft’s autopilot disconnected and sounded an alarm.
The pilots managed to land the plane safely and it stayed on the runway for around two-and-a-half hours before it left for its next flight.
Data confirms the incident, which shows that the aircraft had overflown the runway and managed to make another approach when the pilots awoke.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras wrote on Twitter: ‘Deeply concerning incident at Africa’s largest airline, Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 #ET343 was still at cruising altitude of 37,000ft by the time it reached destination Addis Ababa.
‘Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep.
He referred to ‘pilot fatigue’ which he described as ‘nothing new’ “.
Fortunately no one was harmed.
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