Ethiopian Airlines, the fully state owned aviation company, reacted to the allegations that the pilots flying its aircraft from Sudan to Addis Ababa have passed their destination because both pilots were asleep.
“We have received a report which indicates Ethiopian flight number ET343 en route from Khartoum to Addis Ababa temporarily lost communication with Addis Ababa Air Traffic Control on 15 August 2022,” Ethiopian Airlines said.in its statement a few hours ago.
“The flight later landed safely after communication was restored. The concerned Crew have 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,” said Ethiopian Airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines issued the statement after The Aviation Herald reported about the incident: “An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration ET-AOB performing flight ET-343 from Khartoum (Sudan) to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), was enroute at FL370 when the pilots fell asleep. The aircraft continued past the top of descent maintaining FL370 and continued along the FMC route set up for an approach to runway 25L without descending however.”
“ATC tried to contact the crew numerous times without success. After overflying runway 25L at FL370 the autopilot disconnected, the disconnect wailer woke the crew up who then maneouvered the aircraft for a safe landing on runway 25L about 25 minutes after overflying the runway at FL370,” The Aviation Herald wrote.
One of the comments to the Aviation Herald news reads: “No wonder pilots in Ethiopian fall asleep during flights as they do most of their flying after undertaking extremely low rest before almost every flight. The pilots fly in and out of most of their European destinations with crew who barely took absolute “minimum rest”, as the company call it and mind you most these flights are at night. The management’s extreme “cost saving” practice is, I guess, etching into its safety culture.”
Reacting to the statement of Ethiopian Airlines, “This happens when you exhaust employees with tough and unspeakably lengthy work schedule. The pilots are not machines. In fact it’s an embarrassment ,but focusing only on the crew won’t solve it either. The investigation must also include the peeps responsible for planning flight operations,” a person with Samson YB Machi on FB commented.