The two pilots of a passenger jet slept off in the middle of the flight, but luckily made a safe landing.
On August 15, as flight ET343 was flying from Khartoum to Addis Abeba, an incident occurred at a height of 37,000 feet.
The plane was supposed to start descending at Addis Abeba Bole Airport.
The Aviation Herald claims that Air Traffic Control made an attempt to get in touch with the pilots but was unsuccessful.
After the aircraft’s autopilot disengaged and sounded an alert, the crew eventually woke up.
The plane was safely landed by the pilots, and it was left to wait on the tarmac for around two and a half hours before continuing on to the next trip.
The occurrence is confirmed by data, which demonstrates that the plane had overshot the runway and when the pilots were awakened, another approach was made.
The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 #ET343 was still flying at a cruise altitude of 37,000 feet when it reached in Addis Abeba, according to aviation analyst Alex Macheras, who posted the news on Twitter.
‘Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep.’
‘He referred to ‘pilot fatigue’ which he described as ‘nothing new’.
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
— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 18, 2022
Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep. https://t.co/cPPMsVHIJD pic.twitter.com/RpnxsdtRBf
Many people were shocked by the situation, with several describing it as “unprofessional” and “hazardous.”
One commenter expressed: ‘Hopefully both pilots got fired and the aviation authorities starting an investigation on the crew duty schedules etc of this airline! Thanks god that nothing bad happened.’
Some people commented: ‘this is unprofessional and dangerous’ and ‘mad.’
Not everyone, however, believed that the pilots should be dismissed; one individual contended that they could have been overworked and that the business “covered everything up.”
It follows another instance from April where two other pilots are said to have dozed off, according to ABC 7 Eyewitness News.
They were traveling on a plane with up to 250 other passengers from New York to Rome.
An examination into the event found that the two pilots of the ITA Airways flight leaving from John F. Kennedy International Airport in April slept out during the trip.
They slept off while the Airbus 330 cruised at 38,000 feet above France.
Additionally, they mentioned that they lost communication with the plane for almost 10 minutes, according to air traffic controllers.
Aviation analyst John Nance called the situation “extremely dangerous” in an interview with ABC News.
He said: ‘The plane can still fly on autopilot, but this is not smart or safe.’
The captain said that the radios had failed to work, according to a statement from ITA Airways, but he added that his actions were not in accordance with the guidelines established by the company.
The incident didn’t prevent the flight from landing safely in Rome, but the pilot was sacked.