A Chinese passenger jet flew over the Wuhan airport several times while waiting for snoozing air traffic controllers to wake up and give them clearance to land, reports on Tuesday stated.

Flight MU2528 of China Eastern Airlines was all set to land at the Wuhan airport when they received no response from the air traffic control towers for around 12 minutes and was forced to hover until the two staff at assigned to guide the plane for landing had awakened.

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In spite of the interruption, the Chinese passenger plane was able to land safely.

After placing under investigations, the reports on incident has confirmed that the two air traffic controllers really did fall asleep.

Reports about the incident that happened on July 8 involving the Boeing 737 from Sanya had just been made public on July 28 for unknown reasons.

Netizens condemned the airport employees' negligence citing that though their line of work can be truly exhausting, it is still not enough reason for them to sleep on the job.

"Hundreds of people's lives depend on the actions of flight tower controllers. We entrust our lives to you," a post on Sina Weibo stated.

Another slammed the controllers' actions by asking authorities to 'let him sleep as much as he wants in prison" because of the grave offense.

However, others defended the air traffic controllers with one, who identified himself as an air controller, citing the sacrifices they had to make as flights increase while their number decrease as well as their salaries.

According to a spokesperson for China's aviation authority, the two air traffic controllers in question have been removed from their current duties while investigations are going on.

China is not the only country who had air controllers to sleep on duty as several cities across the United States have reported similar incidents.

TagsChina Eastern Airlines, delayed landing, air control tower