Reports from Aviation Herald, a news website, say that two pilots flying an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 fell asleep and the plane zoomed past landing destination.
The flight was from Khartoum, Sudan to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The plane left Khartoum on Monday and was expected to land in Addis Ababa the same day.
Data obtained from Aviation Herald news website indicates that the plane was on autopilot and cruising at 37,000 feet above sea level when it suddenly failed to land in Addis Ababa as expected.
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
— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 18, 2022
Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep. https://t.co/cPPMsVHIJD pic.twitter.com/RpnxsdtRBf
Air traffic control tried to communicate with the pilots in the plane but could not reach them.
They went into an extent of triggering an alarm in Addis Ababa runway to awaken the pilots but it did not work.
After a short while, the plane was observed taking a U turn and cruised back to its landing destination. The plane landed safely at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport 25 minutes past the time when it was expected to land.
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Aviation analysts say the sleeping of the pilots may have been caused by exhaustion and fatigue. They also claimed that the incident was deeply concerning but this is not the first time pilots have slept on the job.
“Pilot fatigue is nothing new, and continues to pose one of the most significant threats to air safety — internationally,” Aviation analyst Alex Macheras tweeted.
This incident came months after a warning issued to pilots of Delta and Southwest Airlines on risks of fatigue in pilots. They also urged the pilots to look for ways to deal with fatigue.
“Fatigue, both acute and cumulative, has become Southwest Airlines’ number-one safety threat,” the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said.
According to recent reports, the two pilots have been fired.
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