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Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737: "Air traffic control tried several times to contact the crew without success"
Photo: Markus Mainka / Aviation Stock / IMAGO
Ethiopian Airlines is the largest airline in Africa and has enjoyed a good reputation around the world for years.
Technical reasons are said to have played a major role in the crash of Flight 302 in 2019.
What is said to have happened this week on board an airline machine would be a thoroughly human error.
According to media reports, on flight ET 343 from Khartoum in Sudan to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, both pilots fell asleep in the cockpit during the flight - and missed the airport.
The direction of the machine was correct, despite the fact that the two pilots nodded off, writes the specialist publication Aviation Herald.
However, the aircraft did not initiate a descent during the incident on August 15, but passed the destination airport unplanned at an altitude of around 12,000 meters.
Pilots apparently only woken up by an alarm signal
The air traffic control staff were obviously very surprised.
"Air traffic control tried several times to contact the crew without success," writes the "Aviation Herald."
And: After flying over the runway, the autopilot switched off.
An alarm signal went off and woke the pilots.
Aviation expert Alex Macheras spoke of a "very disturbing" incident and used it to draw attention to stress and fatigue among pilots.
The latter "still represents one of the greatest threats to flight safety - internationally."
It was only in the spring that something similar happened to a pilot on a flight from New York to Rome.
The captain was accused of falling asleep during the overflight over France on the morning of May 1 and not being reachable, but he denied this.
The man was released anyway.
Both the flight to Rome and that of the missed airport in Ethiopia ended lightly for the passengers.
According to the Aviation Herald, the pilots of flight ET 343 were finally able to land their machine safely 25 minutes after crossing the runway.
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