SNOOZING ALTITUDE

Both 737 Pilots Fall Asleep Mid-Flight and Overshoot Runway in Ethiopia

Air-traffic controllers somehow managed to wake the dozing aviators before disaster.

Both pilots on an Ethiopia Airlines passenger flight fell asleep mid-air and overshot the runway where they were supposed to be landing as air-traffic controllers desperately tried to wake them. The captain and co-pilot of the Boeing 737, which was flying from Khartoum in Sudan to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on Aug. 15, were only woken when the aircraft’s autopilot disengaged and sounded an alarm. The plane had supposed to have begun its descent to Addis Ababa Bole Airport but was still cruising at 37,000 feet, the Aviation Herald reports. Concerned air-traffic controllers were unable to contact the pilots before the alarm eventually woke the pair. The pilots were then able to make another approach and land the plane without incident. A similar event took place on a flight from New York to Rome in April, ABC7 reports.