Two pilots fall asleep at 11,000 meters above sea level and miss the landing

Two pilots

fell

deeply at

above sea level, missing the runway at

airport : the potentially tragic lightness, however, was resolved with a u-turn lasting almost half an hour and a safe landing.

This was reported by the BBC website, citing a specialized publication, the Aviation Herald.

The air traffic controllers had tried to contact the two pilots immediately after the Ethiopian Airlines plane had passed the point where it was supposed to begin its descent, but to no avail.

Only an alarm from the autopilot woke them up.

The episode took place on the day of

.

The 154-seat Boeing 737 had taken off from Khartoum Airport, Sudan, and the flight to the capital of neighboring Ethiopia was only two hours.

The specialized site specifies that the landing took place 25 minutes after the missed one.

An aviation analyst called the incident "deeply troubling": "Pilot fatigue is nothing new and continues to represent one of the most significant threats to aviation safety internationally," tweeted Alex Macheras.