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 ...
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???!!!
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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.
Would that be the Lake Superior Triangle, or the lake Erie Triangle?
I was wondering also why a flight attendant didn’t pick up the phone to the cockpit and say hey, we just overflew the airport.
Any good stewardess is watching the clock....They have a job to do prior to landing.
Gets my vote.
My initial reaction was that either they were drinking or listening to a ball game and got overly involved. Not sure what day this happened, though. If on a weekday, then probably NOT a game.
No, but my wife does....
“Passengers should have noticed”.
How many times has this been written and the logic ignored?
Passengers are so used to being late because of traffic or weather holds that they would have paid no attention.
I do wonder about the attendants not asking, because they are usually aware of potential weather or traffic holds well in advance.
So it is odd that no flight attendant asked.
But it could be something as simple as the crew putting the wrong way point into the navigation system and not realizing what they had done until they got to that point, or near it, and found out there was no MSP there.
It would be interesting to know where they reversed or ask to reverse course and what prominent way point was in proximity at that time and whether its ID was anything close to the ID for MSP.
If they used lat. and long., it could have been a simple mistake in the numbers.
It would be helpful if some of the big iron guys would speculate, but I can see the reluctance to say anything that might prejudice the future of these guys.
Losing contact with the center is not at all unusual. What is really unusual and at the heart of the mystery is why, barring an electrical emergency, they had TOTAL radio failure. If they remained on the last frequency expecting to be turned over to the next, center would have a flight in that vicinity call them on their last assigned frequency.
In addition, I would expect that their company would have called them to verify their arrival time.
A very odd incident to say the least.
The A-320 is a good plane, but perhaps a tad over automated.
“Passengers should have noticed”.
How many times has this been written and the logic ignored?
Passengers are so used to being late because of traffic or weather holds that they would have paid no attention.
I do wonder about the attendants not asking, because they are usually aware of potential weather or traffic holds well in advance.
So it is odd that no flight attendant asked.
But it could be something as simple as the crew putting the wrong way point into the navigation system and not realizing what they had done until they got to that point, or near it, and found out there was no MSP there.
It would be interesting to know where they reversed or ask to reverse course and what prominent way point was in proximity at that time and whether its ID was anything close to the ID for MSP.
If they used lat. and long., it could have been a simple mistake in the numbers.
It would be helpful if some of the big iron guys would speculate, but I can see the reluctance to say anything that might prejudice the future of these guys.
Losing contact with the center is not at all unusual. What is really unusual and at the heart of the mystery is why, barring an electrical emergency, they had TOTAL radio failure. If they remained on the last frequency expecting to be turned over to the next, center would have a flight in that vicinity call them on their last assigned frequency.
In addition, I would expect that their company would have called them to verify their arrival time.
A very odd incident to say the least.
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