Africa’s best airline Ethiopian Airlines has found itself in bizarre incidents where two pilots fell asleep, put the plane on autopilot and stopped communication with the air traffic controllers.
According to Aviation Herald, Ethiopian B738 with registration ET-AOB was en route at FL370 the pilots reportedly fell asleep as the aircraft continued past the top of descent maintaining FL370 and continuing along the FMC route set up for an approach to runway 25L without descending.
Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) tried to contact the crew numerous times without success but after overflying runway 25L at FL370 the autopilot disconnected. The disconnect wailer however woke the crew up who then manoeuvred the aircraft for a safe landing on runway 25L about 25 minutes after overflying the runway at FL370.
The plane was performing flight ET-343 from Khartoum, Sudan to Addis Ababa about 620 miles / 998 kilometres with an estimated flight time of 1 hour 40 minutes. Mercifully the plane landed safely!
The aircraft remained on the ground for about 2.5 hours before departing for its next flight.
ADS-B data confirm the information, the Aviation Herald received, showing the aircraft maintained FL370 until after overflying the runway before the aircraft began to descend and manoeuvre for another approach.
It has posted an image of the aircraft’s flight path, which shows an infinity-like loop around the Addis Ababa airport.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras also posted on Twitter calling the incident “deeply concerning” while he also blamed pilot fatigue for it.
According to Alex, Ethiopian Airlines has since suspended the two pilots pending further investigation.
Efforts to reach the airline for comments on the incident fell on deaf ears at the time of publishing.
