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 ...
You’re correct, there is a list of relevant freqs on the IFR enroute chart, but the freqs are not listed specific to exact location, they listed specific to a sector that might be 100 square miles and there are 20 or 30 freqs listed. Nailing the right freq for a specific location is impossible without the pilot having made notes on his or her chart from past experience (which many do).
In a lot of cockpits nowadays, with dual INS/GPS/RNAV, enroute charts are rarely examined, unless the route is new to the pilot and the waypoints and airways are unfamiliar.
No doubt this crew was very familiar with the route. Complacency and routine was the essence of their problem.
But, what about the radio? You're right, an odd incident.
That’s pretty funny, but what does that have to do with THIS story???
Are you sure it was her cell phone?
Southwest used to have "air phones". I don't know if they still do -- a lot of airlines have dropped them because they weren't getting enough revenue to justify the weight of the equipment (and the gas to fly it around).
Some of the air phone systems had a "crew phone" -- a cordless phone that was reserved for the crew for company business.
No, not and airphone.
A polite way of describing that in which their heads must have been.
I mean, how do you just breeze past the twin cities and not notice?
Brett who?
hee hee, lol. good one
Perhaps that is why they overshot - they had to get 30 extra minutes of silent flight time so that whatever was on the tape could get “lost”.
Oh. OK. :-)
Man, I'm thinking the same thing.
Maybe they fought first, made up & had sex, then fell asleep cuddling.
That kid is such a crybaby. They’re clearly on approach — a few more minutes and he’ll be safe.
All that time they were chasing a kid in a balloon.
Let’s assume for a horrifying moment that this plane had been hijacked and took out half the skyline of Minneapolis, killing 1,500 people.
From the inept and sketchy reporting, it seems like the plane was out of touch for 60 minutes BEFORE it got to Minn (total non-contact was 77 minutes).
People might be justified in asking why, after 9.11, the FAA did not contact any flight attendants, or passengers on the flight to resolve the time-out. Surely Northwest has many of these records.
Further, we might ask why the military was not running fly-bys of this jet long before it could become yet another bomb on a major city.
The coverage and reaction on this story is absurd. If indeed this was a hijacking, the FAA would be explaining to the people how despite 9.11, their new procedures could neither prevent or EVEN RESOLVE the same type of issue within an hour. Where is the inquiry here?
If there had been an attractive younger female flight attendant... This could only happen by crossing a time warp!
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