At 37,000 feet, pilots get sleepy & miss landing by 25 minutes

• Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 #ET343 reached Addis Ababa at 37,000ft.
• Air Traffic Control sent out a warning.
• The airport missed the runway that was meant for them.

Aviation Herald says that two Ethiopian Airlines pilots got sleepy while flying at 37,000 feet. Monday, the news came out about what happened. Flight ET343 was on autopilot and following the route set by the Flight Management Computer when the pilots fell asleep (FMC). Air Traffic Control (ATC) sent out a warning when planes that were coming in to land at the airport missed the runway that was meant for them.

Report says, the plane sat on the ground for about 2.5 hours before taking off again. An aviation expert, sent out a series of tweets about the incident, saying that it was very scary and that pilot fatigue was to blame.

“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 its destination Addis Ababa. Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep,” he tweeted.

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. https://t.co/cPPMsVHIJD pic.twitter.com/RpnxsdtRBf

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— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 18, 2022

Macheras then said that pilot fatigue is an old problem that is a worldwide threat to air safety. “Pilot fatigue is nothing new, and continues to pose one of the most significant threats to air safety – internationally,” he further stated.

Air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilots numerous times without success

After overflying the runway (still at cruising altitude), the autopilot disconnected – and this chime alert woke the pilots up — who then initiated a descent and eventually made a safe landing.

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— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 18, 2022

In May, a similar incident occurred when two pilots fell asleep while flying from New York to Rome at 38,000 feet above the ground. The aviation regulator looked into the crash and found that both pilots of ITA Airways’ Airbus 330 were sleeping as the plane flew over France.

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