Pilots fall asleep while flying at 37,000 feet, miss landing at Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa
In a bizarre incident, two Ethiopian Airlines pilots fell asleep while flying a plane on way from Sudan's Khartoum to Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, leaving them to miss their landing.
The incident took place on Monday, as reported by Aviation Herald, which added that the Air Traffic Control (ATC) raised an alert when flight ET343 approached the airport but did not start the descent.
While the pilots fell asleep, the Boeing 737's autopilot system kept the plane cruising at 37,000 feet, said reports.
The ATC tried to contact the pilots several times but couldn't do so.
When the plane overflew the runway where it was supposed to land, the autopilot disconnected and that triggered an alarm, which woke up the pilots, according to Aviation Herald.
The pilots then manoeuvred the aircraft around for landing on the runway 25 minutes later, the media outlet said.
Fortunately, no one was injured and the plane landed safely.
Data from the aviation surveillance system ADS-B confirmed that the incident took place and the aircraft flew over the runway.
It has posted an image of the aircraft's flight path, which shows an infinity-like loop near the Addis Ababa airport.
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