Pilots fall asleep while flying at 37,000 Ft as desperate air traffic controllers try to wake them up

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New
Delhi,
Aug
19:
Two
Ethiopian
Airlines
pilots
fell
asleep
while
flying
a
flight
from
Sudan’s
Khartoum
to
Ethiopia
capital
Addis
Ababa
and
missed
their
landing.
The
incident
happened
when
Boeing
737-800
ET-343
was
flying
at
37,000
feet
from
Khartoum
to
Addis
Ababa
on
August
15
when
the
pilots
fell
asleep,
according
to
Aviation
Herald.

The
pilots
were
meant
to
begin
their
descent
to
Addis
Ababa
Bole
Airport.
According
to
the
Aviation
Herald,
Air
Traffic
Control
made
attempted
to
contact
the
pilots
but
were
unsuccessful.

Airlines
to
share
travelers’
data
with
Customs
to
stop
offenders
from
‘fleeing’

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.

Aviation
analyst
Alex
Macheras
in
a
tweet
said
that
the
development
was
concerning
and
more
so
because
the
aircraft
overflew
the
runway
at
37,000
feet.

“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
wrote
in
a
tweet.

A
similar
incident
was
reported
earlier
in
May
when
two
pilots
fell
asleep
while
flying
a
plane
from
New
York
to
Rome.

Pilot
associations
have
slammed
the
aviation
industry’s
inability
to
understand
pilot
fatigue
and
likened
it
to
‘handing
car
keys
to
a
drunk
driver’.