Pilots Fall Asleep At 37,000 Feet, Miss Landing

Two Ethiopian Airways pilots fell asleep whereas flying a flight from Sudan’s Khartoum to Ethiopia capital Addis Ababa and missed their touchdown. The incident came about on Monday, in keeping with Aviation Herald, which added that the Air Visitors Management (ATC) raised an alert when flight ET343 approached the airport however didn’t begin the descent. Whereas the pilots fell asleep, the Boeing 737’s autopilot system saved the aircraft cruising at 37,000 ft, the outlet additional mentioned. It additional mentioned that the plane remained on the bottom for about 2.5 hours earlier than departing for its subsequent flight.

The ATC tried to contact the pilots a number of instances however could not succeed. When the aircraft overflew the runway the place it was alleged to land, the autopilot disconnected. That triggered an alarm, which wakened the pilots, in keeping with Aviation Herald.

They then maneuvered the plane round for touchdown on the runway 25 minutes later, the outlet additional mentioned.

Fortuitously, nobody was harmed and the aircraft landed safely.

Information from aviation surveillance system ADS-B confirmed that the incident came about and the plane flew over the runway. It has posted a picture of the plane’s flight path, which exhibits an infinity-like loop close to the Addis Ababa airport.

The picture posted by ADS-B exhibits the flight path of the Ethiopian Airways aircraft.

Aviation analyst Alex Macheras additionally posted in regards to the occasion on Twitter, calling it “deeply regarding”. He additionally blamed pilot fatigue for it.

The same incident was reported in Could when two pilots fell asleep on flight from New York to Rome as aircraft travelled 38,000 ft above floor.

An investigation was carried out by the aviation regulator, which confirmed that each the pilots of ITA Airways have been sleeping as their Airbus 330 flew over France.