Both pilots nod off at 37,000 feet, miss landing, but major disaster avoided

Pilots of an Ethiopian Airlines flight fell asleep during takeoff, causing the plane to miss its landing. The event happened on Monday when the plane was en route from Sudan's Khartoum to Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

According to Aviation Herald, when a plane neared the airport but didn't land, Air Traffic Control (ATC) sent an alert. The aircraft was in autopilot mode, which maintained a cruising altitude of 37,000 feet.

Additionally, according to Aviation Herald, the ATC made numerous attempts to get in touch with the ET343 flight's pilots but was unsuccessful. "When the plane overflew the runway where it was supposed to land, the autopilot disconnected. That triggered an alarm, which woke up the pilots"

Twenty-five minutes later, the jet turned around for a runway landing, according to the site, but it did so without incident.

The occurrence was corroborated by the ADS-B aviation surveillance system, which also published a picture of the aircraft's flight route depicting an infinity-like loop close to the Addis Ababa airport.

A similar event happened earlier this year when two pilots slept off during a trip from New York to Rome. The aircraft flew 38,000 feet above the earth.