A plane did not go down because the pilots “fell asleep” during the flight

“Motorcycle, plane, bus and boat”: This is how this man fled from China to the US 7:06 (CNN) — Two pilots are believed to have fallen asleep and missed landing the plane during a flight from Sudan to Ethiopia. The incident took place on Monday aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 en route from Khartoum to Addis Ababa, according to a report by commercial aviation news site Aviation Herald. Data obtained by the website indicates that the aircraft was cruising at 11,277 meters (37,000 feet) on autopilot when it failed to land at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, its scheduled destination, on August 15. Air traffic control was apparently unable to contact the crew despite several attempts. However, an alarm was triggered when the aircraft overshot the runway and continued on the route. The aircraft eventually began to descend and landed safely about 25 minutes later. Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data shows the aircraft hovering over the runway, before beginning its descent and maneuvering for another approach. ‘Deeply concerning’ Aviation analyst Alex Macheras has since taken to Twitter to express his surprise at the ‘deeply concerning incident’, suggesting it may have been the result of pilot exhaustion. “Pilot fatigue is nothing new and continues to represent one of the most significant threats to aviation safety, internationally,” he tweeted Thursday. 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 Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep. https://t.co/cPPMsVHIJD pic.twitter.com/RpnxsdtRBf — Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 18, 2022 The report comes just a few months after Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines pilots warned executives of airlines that pilot burnout was on the rise and urged them to treat fatigue and resulting errors as a safety risk. “Fatigue, both acute and cumulative, has become Southwest Airlines’ number one safety threat,” the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, or SWAPA, told airline executives in a letter in April. According to the letter, the growing demand for air travel as the industry begins to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and the chaos of cancellations caused by severe weather were among the reasons for the increase in pilot burnout. In May, the Italian newspaper Repubblica reported that an ITA pilot had been fired after “falling asleep” during a flight between New York and Rome. The co-pilot was said to be taking an “authorized rest” at the time, causing the Airbus A330 to lose communication with air traffic control for ten minutes, according to the report. CNN has contacted Ethiopian Airlines for comment.