Ethiopian Airlines suspends pilots who missed landing because they fell asleep

[The_Librarian]

If the pilots were fatigued, then the carrier most probably was pushing them too hard without proper resting periods.

Will be interesting to see the outcome of the investigation and the official conclusion.

Plus Mentour Pilot's take on it.

There is a good reason why there are mandated resting periods for pilots and cabin crew, people are not automata.

However, if the pilots themselves disobeyed the rules, and decided not to sleep for the mandated rest periods, it is their own fault.

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

They should check the FDR to see what the cabin pressure was. I'm thinking there might be a bit of hypoxia at play here because I find it hard to believe that the number 1 FA didn't realise that their aren't any announcements coming from the cockpit to indicate descent.

 

[Bill Clitnon]

Was a similar story some years ago, pilots nodded off, woke up too late to start the descent, except the captain decided to force the landing.

They made it down to the runway but were too fast, so the landing gear didn’t deploy, the pilots were in too much of a mad rush to notice. They attempted the landing and realized they were in trouble when the scraping on the runway started, so they pulled up for a go-around. They had enough power to get back up, but all the engines had now been damaged from scraping along the runway and cut out before they could complete the go-around. They crashed killing everyone on board.

The point is, this could have been a lot worse. At least the pilots accepted their mistake and went on to do a safe landing.

Yeah this was a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 from Lahore to Karachi. Only 2 pax survived. Similar flight time to the Ethiopian one (1h50m), but they didn't fall asleep. Apparently:

"A fourteen-page preliminary report on the accident was released on 24 June. Extracts from the cockpit voice recorder suggest the pilots were preoccupied in a non-operational conversation about the COVID-19 pandemic."

There would have been continuous EGPWS warning alerts in the cockpit too. Early reports blame ATC and an overconfident captain (they were too fast & high). Still waiting for the final report more than 2 years later.

 

[now05ster]

Plus Mentour Pilot's take on it.

I enjoy his take on these. He gives the eli5 using the info from the investigation reports.

 

[ponder]

Yes, a passenger plane can land by itself using the autopilot, through a system that is often referred to as 'autoland'. The pilots can program the autopilot to carry out the landing automatically whilst the pilots monitor the aircraft's systems. However, there are limitations as to when the autoland system can be used.

Can Passenger Planes Land Automatically by Themselves? | FDF

Can an aeroplane land by itself automatically without the pilots? How do aircraft land on their own? We explain when and how they land using the autopilot.

www.flightdeckfriend.com

It's not used as the norm, only in zero vis and with airports equipped to allow it and specific conditions contained in the link. I have often been on flights when it was announced that we would be landing using autoland because of zero vis.

I was on an new Airbus in the early to mid 90s where the captain announced they were gonna do a test run of the system. The landing was super smooth but the brakes were applied a bit to harshly at one point causing people to lurch forward a bit.

 

[neoprema]

I know people say AI will never fully fly planes, but I think there will come a time when the Pilot is an endandgered species. Sometimes I think i'de feel safer if a machine flew the entire flight. And don't quote the 737-Max and others, I'm talking about a machine that is almost fully intelligent minus any emotion - which we haven't made yet. YET.

 

[RaptorSA]

I cannot resist the lame joke here:

I want to die like my grandfather pilots, peacefully in his their sleep, not screaming, like the passengers in his car their plane.

 

[Bill Clitnon]

I cannot resist the lame joke here:

I want to die like my grandfather pilots, peacefully in his their sleep, not screaming, like the passengers in his car their plane.

 

[ForceFate]

I know people say AI will never fully fly planes, but I think there will come a time when the Pilot is an endandgered species. Sometimes I think i'de feel safer if a machine flew the entire flight. And don't quote the 737-Max and others, I'm talking about a machine that is almost fully intelligent minus any emotion - which we haven't made yet. YET.

That's another 100 or more years...

 

[neoprema]

That's another 100 or more years...