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| Fri, 10-23-2009 - 8:21am |
Pilots should have had warning of airport approach
WASHINGTON – Two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot their destination by 150 miles before turning back should have had numerous warnings as they approached and passed Minneapolis: cockpit displays, controllers trying repeatedly to reach, the city lights twinkling below.
Yet the pilots didn't discover their mistake until a flight attendant in the cabin contacted them by intercom, said a source close to the investigation who wasn't authorized to talk publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. By that time, the plane was over Eau Claire, Wis., and the pilots had been out of communication with air traffic controllers for over an hour.
The crew told authorities they were distracted during a heated discussion over airline policy, the Federal Aviation Administration said. But federal officials are investigating whether pilot fatigue might be to blame.
NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said Thursday investigators hadn't yet questioned the pilots and didn't know whether it was possible they had fallen asleep. The pilots have been suspended from flying by their airline while it, too, investigates.
The plane, en route from San Diego with 144 passengers and a crew of five, passed over its destination of Minneapolis at 37,000 feet just before 9 p.m. EDT Wednesday. Contact with controllers wasn't established until 14 minutes later, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident.
Thank goodness the plane had enough fuel onboard.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8324468.stm
A pilot on the US plane that overshot its destination by 150 miles has said the incident was "not serious" and passenger safety was not an issue.
Richard Cole told the Associated Press news agency outside his home in Oregon that it was not unusual for planes to lose contact with ground control.
Contact with the Northwest Airlines jet was lost for more than an hour before it landed in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
The White House has said it was kept informed of the flight's situation.
Richard Cole told AP: "It was not a serious event, from a safety issue.
"I would tell you more, but I've already told you way too much."
He stressed again that reports the pilots had fallen asleep were wrong.
"We were not asleep; we were not having an argument; we were not having a fight."
When asked why it had taken him and fellow pilot Timothy Cheney so long to respond to radio calls, Mr Cole said: "I can tell you that airplanes lose contact with the ground people all the time.
"It happens. Sometimes they get together right away; sometimes it takes awhile before one or the other notices that they are not in contact."
Older data system
Jets from the National Guard were put on alert to chase the airliner amid fears it may have been hijacked, although they did not take off.
White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said it had been informed of the situation and had been monitoring it closely.
However, Mr Shapiro would not say whether President Barack Obama had been told of the incident.
The investigation into the incident has begun, with assessment under way of the plane's data recorders.
However, the Airbus A320 in question reportedly has an older recording system said to contain only the last half hour of Flight 188.
Both pilots have been suspended pending the inquiry.
The plane was heading from San Diego to Minneapolis carrying 147 passengers.
Air traffic controllers lost radio contact with the plane approximately an hour before it was due to reach its destination of Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain Airport.
The plane missed its intended stop and continued on for a further 16 minutes before controllers managed to speak to the pilots.
LOL!
Pilots were using their laptops. Apparently to figure out a
The only thing on a laptop that I can imagine making men lose all sense of time and direction is something pornographic.