A Boeing 737 belonging to Africa’s largest airline remained 37,000 feet in the air when it was supposed to be landing at its intended destination earlier this week, reportedly because the pilots had fallen asleep.
Air traffic control officials attempted to contact the pilots multiple times when they noticed that the Ethiopian Airlines plane flying from Sudan to Ethiopia wasn’t descending, but the 737’s crew failed to respond, according to The Aviation Herald. After the plane flew past the runway, its autopilot function switched off and triggered an alarm that awoke the pilots, who then safely landed the aircraft 25 minutes after its scheduled time.
“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,” Aviation Analyst Alex Macheras tweeted, along with a photo showing the plane’s haphazard flight path…
