Posted on 10/25/2009 9:59:16 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Mystery deepens over what distracted pilots on plane that overshot by 150 miles
The mystery of the Northwest Airlines plane that overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles has deepened after the first officer insisted that he and the pilot were not asleep or arguing.
By Philip Sherwell in New York
Published: 6:39PM BST 24 Oct 2009
The mystery of the Northwest Airlines plane that overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles has deepened after the first officer insisted that he and the pilot were not asleep or arguing. Pilots on the Northwest Airlines plane that overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles will not say what they were doing Photo: AP
Richard Cole refuted two explanations put forward for the strange case of NW flight 188 when the cockpit crew was out of radio contact for more than an hour after flying past Minneapolis, their final stop on Wednesday evening.
"Nobody was asleep in the cockpit. No arguments took place," Mr Cole told a local television station from his home in Oregon. "But other than that, I cannot tell you anything that went on because we're having hearings this weekend, we're having hearings on Tuesday. All that information will come out then."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
They were trying to read BO health care bill...
So what is THEIR EXPLANATION of THEIR stupidity?
I say that if the pilots feel safe enough to sleep in the air thenwe can all feel better about flying.
I smell a sex scandal. What other reason would there be for such secrecy? Perhaps a little mile high action distraction?
Out of contact for an hour, but only flew 150 mph past the airport?
Jets travel at 600 mph.
...
They were initially said to have explained that they had been involved in a heated debate about the airline, which was recently taken over by Delta.
“The pilot... indicated they had become involved in conversation and had not heard radio communications,” the report said. “They indicated there had been no involvement from anyone in the cabin.”
...
So what is THEIR excuse NOW?
Inquiring minds would like to know!
Good catch, maybe they were circling?
I wanna hear those tapes!!!!!
What I have *not* heard, yet, is what the cockpit recorder revealed. Interesting...
the infowarrior
MAD pilot love.....
What about the passengers? They would have noticed they were an hour late.
Mrs. IllumiNaughtyByNature said, "they must have been having sex."
I love this wowan.
But they do “slow” down to approach. You don’t drive 35mph directly into your garage and then hit the brakes...or do you???!!!
I heard that the recorder is an older type that only stores the last 30 minutes of flight, so it will only have the time after they turned around and headed back to their destination.
They said they were absorbed in an intense discussion of airline policy. That’s pretty much all they’ve said.
They were FReeping.
I wonder if Barney Frank is going to privately depose each pilot in closed door hearings?
Now they are denying that.
So I was wondering how they are explaining this now.
don’t rule out involvement by the religion of peace (tm)...
Yeah, my money is on something sex-related.
Usual bad reporting! Does anybody say anything about complaints on the late touchdown - such as passengers and other grew members? SOMEBODY must have looked out the window and said, “Wasn’t that Minn-St. Paul we just passed?” Or, “Were we supposed to land 20 mins ago?”
The AlQada Langoliers have claimed responsibility.
i was thinking the same. thats why the radio was off.
texting while flying?
as the recorder won’t show it, it’ll be just their word on it. therefore... i’d bet sex related
They were out of contact before they got to the airport.
Good luck....we’re all counting on you.
What we should be aware of is that MANY people were not paying attention...and no one was doing anything. A disaster waiting to happen.
All those passengers and no one noticed "THE TIME" or a landmark???
Sex...An hour??? Must have bought her dinner first!!
The Mile High Club. Bingo... and flight attendants were where?
Where are the FA’s statements, unless they were in on it.
Thank goodness no one had the fish.
OMG!
You’re bad!
lol!
My considered opinion is that they (the pilots) miss-entered the destination and route number (enroute waypoints associated with this flight p[lan) in their flight management computer (FMC) and thought they were flying to a different airport. Typically, this is a joint checklist item for both pilots to confirm destination and route of flight and proper FMC entry.)
To complicate the matter, I think they missed a radio change and didn’t respond very quickly to the silence on freq. Ergo, no prompts from ATC. Bad combination of errors.
Once they were back in radio contact, they were informed of their deviation and then had to do an enroute change of destination and a re-entry of waypoints in their FMC to return to MSP. That takes a little bit of time, as it isn’t a task that is done very often. It’s only performed during reroutes and/or and diverts, which are actually pretty rare.
I think this is the only plausible explanation. If the pilot flies past his “clearance-limit” ( as in the destination entered in the FMC) and the aircraft is on autopilot, the autopilot will disengage. This would be accompanied by aural warnings and flashing lights. It would have been the attention-getter that these guys didn’t get.
IMHO.
What was happening in the control tower?
the infowarrior
But they do “slow” down to approach. You don’t drive 35mph directly into your garage and then hit the brakes...or do you???!!!
———————————————————————————>>
Yes, but I also don’t drive 5 mph on my entire commute from the office either.
Personally I cannot fathom how the road warriors onboard would not have inquired about their arrival time, but bear in mind they only flew 150 miles PAST their destination, which is about 15 - 20 minutes. Not everyone would be immediately concerned that they had not started their descent/ initial approach.
I understand they were flying at 37,000 ft., so if there was cloud cover at any altitude below them, folks might have missed landmarks.
Also, they (pilots) might have inadvertently entered an incorrect frequency on their radio after being ‘handed off’ from one controller to the next.
There’s reasons why they could ‘lose’ radio contact.
BUT ... in an A320 I cannot believe the nav system/ flight computer wouldn’t have nagged them terribly about waypoints.
This is one for the books.
Good point!
Not much to hear since the tapes only record the last 30 minutes which would have been well after they realized their errors and were returning to the airport.
What I heard is that it only records in blocks of time like every 20 minutes or so then it recycles, recording over the previous recorded segment. So the only thing that will be heard is the last period of recorded time which would entail the approach and final landing........thats what I heard and I think it came from the guy who is the head of the NTSB.
...Joey, ya’ever seen a grown man naked?
In-Flight Orgy? Ya know, Charles Krauthammer raised a great question.. Not one member of the crew, stewards, etc., realized something was wrong? A 1 hour extension of the flight surely couldn’t have gone unnoticed.
Oh I didn’t realize that ~ I’d seen that they said there was no arguing and they weren’t sleeping....
I personally wonder if they were sleeping and just don’t want to admit it because they’d lose their jobs.
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