Plane crew fall asleep at 37,000 feet, miss runway; Expert blames 'pilot fatigue'
Pilots in flight
For people travelling on Flight ET343, August 15 was an experience that was both harrowing and miraculous. Pilots of the flight, which was travelling from Khartoum to Addis Ababa, apparently fell asleep at 37,000 feet in the air and missed their landing.
As per the Aviation Herald, the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 continued past its scheduled destination: the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and didn't approach the runway. In spite of multiple tries, Air Traffic Control (ATC) was unable to reach the crew.
When the plane overflew the runway, the autopilot mode was disengaged, and "the disconnect wailer woke the crew up, who then manoeuvred the aircraft for a safe landing on the runway about 25 minutes after overflying the runway."
Alex Macheras, an aviation analyst, expressed his dismay at the "deeply concerning incident" on Twitter, suggesting that pilot fatigue might be to blame.
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As per CNN, this incident comes just months after a warning by Southwest Airlines Pilots Association(SWAPA), which cautioned that "Fatigue, both acute and cumulative, has become Southwest Airlines' number-one safety threat."
Reportedly, the number of pilots who reported being unable to work due to exhaustion soared in the fall, including a 600 per cent rise in October, and hit "another staggering 330 per centincrease" in March, according to the union's letter to executives. SWAPA stated that "April is already setting fatigue records."
In the US, about 60 reports of mistakes or other incidences involving fatigue were submitted to the federal Aviation Safety Reporting System by pilots from all carriers in 2021.Some pilots reported feeling worn out from managing training duties. Others claimed that because of a personnel shortage, airline bosses requested them to oversee too many extra flights.
(With inputs from agencies)
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