Ethiopian Airlines misses landing - pilots asleep

[AisleSeat]

The incident took place on board an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 en route from Khartoum to Addis Ababa, the report said, "when the pilots fell asleep" and "the aircraft continued past the top of descent."

Data obtained by the website indicates that the aircraft was cruising at 37,000 feet on autopilot when it failed to descend at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, its scheduled destination, on August 15.

Plane fails to descend as pilots reportedly fell asleep during flight

Two pilots are believed to have fallen asleep and missed their landing during a flight from Sudan to Ethiopia on Monday, according to an Aviation Herald report.

edition.cnn.com

 

[Mwenenzi]

The Aviation Herald

Aviation Herald - News, Incidents and Accidents in Aviation

avherald.com

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.
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ET343 (ETH343) Ethiopian Airlines Flight Tracking and History 15-Aug-2022 (KRT / HSSK-ADD / HAAB) - FlightAware
I have flown on Ethiopian Airlines many years ago.

 

[jb747]

The item I find most interesting in this is that the FO was supposedly on an authorised sleep break. It looks to be a sector that’s only a little longer than Canberra-Brisbane, and you wouldn’t expect breaks to be part of the routine on such a short sector. I wonder what the rest of their day, and their rosters in general, look like.

 

[Mattg]

@jb747 is it just me, or do you find it particularly concerning that the thing that woke them up was the autopilot disconnecting? (I mean, what if they both missed that alarm?!)

Any idea what could trigger the autopilot to disconnect when they are both asleep and assuming they are not touching any controls? (That may be a better question for @AviatorInsight given the aircraft type involved.)

I see that this particular flight departed at 3.30am, so that could explain why they were tired. They'd probably also just flown an ADD-KRT sector (departing at 1.10am) prior to this flight.

 

[jb747]

@jb747 is it just me, or do you find it particularly concerning that the thing that woke them up was the autopilot disconnecting? (I mean, what if they both missed that alarm?!)

No, that’s a good thing, otherwise they might have had an extended sleep, and you don’t want to be woken by sounds of engines winding down.

If the autopilot disconnect alarm didn’t wake you, then nothing will!

Any idea what could trigger the autopilot to disconnect when they are both asleep and assuming they are not touching any controls? (That may be a better question for @AviatorInsight given the aircraft type involved.)

I don’t have a manual with me, but I think that’s normal behaviour at the ‘end of route’.

I see that this particular flight departed at 3.30am, so that could explain why they were tired. They'd probably also just flown an ADD-KRT sector (departing at 1.10am) prior to this flight.

But was that the end of a couple of other sectors. And how disrupted have their previous days been. Airline flying is shift work, but you can change shifts every day or so. The rostering practices of the airline will have a lot to do with this.

I recall one 767 pattern that had you arriving from a two man crew international flight at about 8am. You were then supposed to be able to get sufficient rest to fly from Oz to Auckland and back, starting at about 10:30pm. It possibly looked ok on paper, and was ’legal’, but the union complained about it, as the hotel concerned was notorious for noise (but I guess it was cheap). The plan fell apart almost immediately. On the first day, the Captain called crewing in the early evening, and told them to get replacements, as neither pilot had been able to get adequate rest. They managed that, but then on the next occasion the crew flew it to NZ, and then told them they were too tired to fly back. End of pattern.