Pilots of Africa’s largest airline sleep off at 37000ft; autopilot averts calamity

Two pilots of a passenger airplane fell asleep while flying at 37,000 feet, leaving autopilot to save the day.

According to Mail Online, Flight ET343 on the fleet of the Ethiopian Airways was travelling from Khartoum to Addis Ababa on August 15, and it was supposed to touch down at the Addis Ababa Bole Airport.

The Air Traffic Control attempted to contact the pilots in vain,

It was the aircraft’s autopilot that disconnected, thus alarming the snoring pilots.

The the aircraft had overflown the runway and managed to make another approach when the pilots awoke.

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 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—because of ‘pilot fatigue’.

Though he said it’s not new.