They only awoke after the autopilot disconnected
Two pilots managed to overshoot their destination airport due to them both being asleep at the time.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight #ET343 from Khartoum to Addis Ababa was at 37,000 ft when it was supposed to start the descent into the destination airport.
The Air Traffic Control tried to contact the crew several times without success.
When the autopilot disconnected, the alarm woke up the pilots of the Boeing Boeing 737-800 up.
They reacted and finally landed the plane on runway 25L about 25 minutes later.
Air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilots numerous times without success
After overflying the runway (still at cruising altitude), the autopilot disconnected – and this chime alert woke the pilots up — who then initiated a descent and eventually made a safe landing.
— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 18, 2022
The incident left people shocked, with many saying it was ‘unprofessional’ and ‘dangerous.’
One person wrote: “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.”
Another added: “this is unprofessional and dangerous” while a third added: “mad.”
But not everyone agreed that the pilots should be fired, with one person arguing they could have been overworked and the company “covered it up”.
And a separate person was unsurprised by the incident, commenting: “Ex controller here, trust me when I tell you its happened here as well.”
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