“Deeply concerning”: Pilots suspended after falling asleep and missing landing

London, United Kingdom - July 31, 2018: Ethiopian Airbus A350-900 airplane at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in the United Kingdom.
By James Harrison


Ethiopian Airlines has suspended two pilots after they reportedly fell asleep while operating passenger flight ET343 last week, causing them to overshoot their landing.

The pilots could not be reached by air traffic control and were only woken when an alarm alerting the two that the autopilot system had disconnected. They circled back to their destination, Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and landed safely 25 minutes later.

The plane was flying out of Khartoum in Sudan and was following the correct route as it approached its destination, but didn’t descend, according to flight tracking data that was following the plane.

Aviation analyst Alex Macheras described the incident as “deeply concerning” and questioned why the flight didn’t begin descending when it was meant to.

Ethiopian Airlines published a press release last week detailing the incident and said the pilots 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 managing director of Aviation Projects, Kieth Tonkin, told the ABC that airlines generally have protocols to ensure someone at the controls is awake at all times.

“It’s important [the pilots] be given a chance to explain themselves, but if there was some reason they couldn’t stay alert or awake for such a short trip, if they did violate some sort of rule or procedure, then there may be some action taken against them,” he said.

Macheras said that the issue of exhaustion amongst pilots is “widespread” and an issue across the aviation industry.

In June, the CEO of European budget carrier Wizz Air caught backlash after he told pilots to push through their exhaustion.

“We cannot run this business when every fifth person of a base reports sickness, because the person is fatigued,” said József Váradi, citing compensation fees. “Sometimes it is required to take the extra mile. The damage is huge when we are canceling the flight, it’s huge.”

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