Ethiopian Airlines Suspends Pilots Over Sleeping on Duty

Two pilots of Ethiopian Airlines have been suspended after they were reportedly found sleeping while flying from Sudan to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and over shot the airport runway.

According to a report by the Aviation Herald, Flight 343, a Boeing 737-800 that was meant to begin descent to Bole Airport in Addis Ababa, overshot its destination. It reported that alarm was raised when the plane approached the international airport on August 15 but had not started to descend.

The autopilot system kept the plane cruising at 37,000 feet (11,200m) before the alarm system went off thereby waking the pilots who later landed safely.

Ethiopian airlines which is one of the biggest air carriers in Africa 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.”

“Safety has always been and will continue to be our first priority,” the statement added.

According to reports, the air control noticed that the aircraft had not started descending as usual when approaching the airport for landing so they 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.