John Adoyi, PBA Journalism MenteeFor the first time, Prime Business Africa confirms that at least two sleeping pilots have been sanctioned by Ethiopian Airlines for putting passengers lives in danger while flying the aircraft on August 15, 2022.
The two pilots working for the Ethiopian Airlines were suspended indefinitely after they were confirmed to be sleeping while flying from Sudan to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The duo overshot the airport runway.
The incident was first reported by Aviation Herald and now confirmed by Prime Business Africa after some staff of the airline corroborated the story.
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Flight 343, a Boeing 737-800 was meant to initiate descent into Bole Airport in Addis Ababa but overshot its destination, triggering panic among Air Traffic Controllers and other airport operatives. An alarm was reportedly raised when the airplane approached the international airport on August 15 but failed to initiate descent as expected.
The autopilot system kept the plane cruising at 37,000 feet (11,200m) before the alarm system went off, waking the two pilots who later landed safely.
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Ethiopian Airlines remains one of the biggest air carriers in Africa. It later released a statement on Friday disclosing that the crew had been “removed from operation pending further investigation. Appropriate corrective action will be taken based on the outcome of the investigation.”
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“Safety has always been and will continue to be our first priority,” the statement added.
The air control had noticed that the aircraft had not started descending as usual when approaching the airport for landing and tried contacting the pilots but to no avail until the alarm from the autopilot went off allegedly waking the pilots who later landed without hitch.
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