Paris. The lives of passengers on a flight from Paris to Corsica, the capital of France, were in danger when the air traffic controller fell asleep before the plane landed. After this, the plane kept circling in the air for 18 minutes. The incident took place at Ajaccio airport, where the lone controller posted there fell asleep in the middle of his shift.

France’s civil aviation authority reported on Wednesday that a plane was forced to circle for 18 minutes over the Mediterranean Sea after an air traffic controller fell asleep. The lone controller at Ajaccio airport was waiting for the plane, which was an hour late… and fell asleep. Because he was the only employee on shift, no one was present to wake him. As a result, he failed to prepare the only 2,400-meter-long runway for a safe landing.

Unable to make a safe landing, the pilot had to circle the airport while fire brigade personnel tried to contact the tower. Police and other personnel were called in, and the controller was awakened by climbing the tower. The shocked captain said, “In my decades-long career, I have never encountered such a situation. We circled a bit. There was no panic at any point; everyone remained calm.” He said that the passengers found humor in the incident and found it amusing.