NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 19 — An airline crew flying a routine regional route from Sudan’s Khartoum International Airport to Ethiopia’s Bole missed a scheduled arrival slot on Monday after pilots overflew the runway at a cruising altitude of 37,000 feet.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 343, a Boeing 737-800, flew as far as Amawute in the Oromia region, some 42 miles away from Addis Ababa according to Flightradar24 when the pilots initiated a turn back to the destination airport.
The incident caught the attention of aviation analysts with reports indicating the pilots may have fallen asleep due to fatigue and failed to initiate and descent only to be alerted after the autopilot disconnected.
“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, an aviation analyst and Gulf-Times columnist, commented.
The plane later returned to the airport and landed safely about 25 minutes after its scheduled arrival.
