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Snoozing airport controller causes landing nightmare for China Eastern plane
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 19 August, 2014, 5:52pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 19 August, 2014, 5:57pm
Agence France-Presse in Beijing
A China Eastern Airlines flight had no contact with the air control tower for 12 minutes. It eventually landed safely. Photo: Reuters
A Chinese aircraft was forced to delay its landing after two air traffic controllers nodded off, reports said on Tuesday, sparking a wave of online anger about airline safety.
The Boeing 737 was preparing to land at Wuhan airport in central China but had no response from the air traffic control tower for 12 minutes, reports said.
Contact was eventually made and China Eastern Airlines flight MU2528 from Sanya landed safely, the Sina.com news portal said.
“Because air traffic control was asleep on duty, [the airplane] called many times,” civil aviation authorities said in a statement quoted by Chinese business magazine Caijing.
“But there was no reply, and no contact could be made with the control tower.”
A separate investigation report cited by Caijing said two controllers had fallen asleep.
The incident happened on July 8 and the statement was dated July 29. There was no explanation for the delay in making it public.
“Air control work is truly exhausting, but it is unforgivable to sleep on duty,” a post on Weibo said on Tuesday.
“Hundreds of people’s lives depend on the actions of flight tower controllers. We entrust our lives to you,” the post continued.
Another netizen added: “Such serious consequences. Should let him sleep as much as he wants in prison.”
China Eastern Airlines has had its share of mishaps. Last June, one of its airplanes skidded off the runway in Shanxi by some 300 metres while flying to Taiyuan city in Shanxi.
Two days before that, an Airbus 320 flying from Nanchang to Nanning somehow overshot its target -- the runway -- and landed on a nearby taxiway instead.
No one was hurt in either incident, which were deemed minor, but safety concerns were raised and experts urged a thorough investigation.
