Pilots fall asleep while flying at 37,000 feet, miss landing

Chandigarh, August 19

It was a miraculous landing for Flight ET343 travelling from Khartoum to Addis Ababa on August 15 when the two pilots flying it fell asleep at 37,000 feet and missed their landing.

The incident took place on Monday, according to Aviation Herald, which added that the Air Traffic Control (ATC) raised an alert when flight ET343 approached the airport, but did not start the descent.

Finally, 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 showed 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’.