According to the Aviation Herald, the incident happened on Monday. The plane took off from Khartoum in Sudan to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
Aircraft are considered to be the fastest mode of transport. But, this speed sometimes may also become dangerous. A similar incident was seen in the African country of Ethiopia. Here, both the pilots of the flight from Khartoum in Sudan to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa fell into a deep sleep before landing. Due to this the Boeing 737 plane missed the landing at Addis Ababa Airport. The aircraft was flying at an altitude of 37000 feet at the time of the incident. When the plane neither slowed down nor lowered altitude for landing, Air Traffic Control sent messages to the pilots several times, but they did not respond as they were fast asleep.
How pilots woke up?
According to the Aviation Herald, the incident happened on Monday. The plane took off from Khartoum in Sudan to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. When flight ET343 approached Addis Ababa airport, but did not show any signs of landing. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) then issued an alert. ATC tried several times to contact the pilots, but to no avail. As soon as the plane crossed the runway of the airport, their autopilot was disconnected. This triggered an alarm in the cabin, due to which the pilots woke up. After this the plane was landed in a hurry.
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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
— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 18, 2022
Even after waking up, it took 25 minutes for the pilots to land the plane
During this the plane made several rounds of the airport. Thankfully no one was hurt and the plane landed safely. After this the plane was stopped from taking the next flight. It was only after a detailed investigation of about 2.5 hours that the aircraft was allowed to take off on the next flight. Data from Aviation Surveillance System ADS-B confirmed that the incident occurred and the aircraft took off over the runway. A photo of the plane’s flight path has also been posted, showing the plane cutting a loop near Addis Ababa airport.
Aviation analyst Alex Maceras also posted about the incident on Twitter. He said that the incident is a matter of grave concern. He also attributed this to the fatigue of the pilot. A similar incident came to light in May when two pilots fell asleep on a flight from New York to Rome. At that time his plane had gone 38,000 feet above the ground. An investigation by the aviation regulator had confirmed that both the pilots of ITA Airways were sleeping at the time of the incident.
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