Mystery deepens over what distracted pilots on plane that overshot by 150 miles

Telegraph ^ | 10/24/09 | Philip Sherwell

[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."

[StormEye]

"I smell a sex scandal. What other reason would there be for such secrecy? Perhaps a little mile high action distraction?"

I think you might be right. Remember the Air France crew that was fired for posting a video on the internet of an air hostess undressing in the "cockpit" and displaying herself to the crew?

[darkwing104]

Would that be the Lake Superior Triangle, or the lake Erie Triangle?

I was thinking of the Green Bay Triangle...As I recall that is where Brett Favre disappeared.

[MHGinTN]

He’s surfaced in Pittsburgh today ...

[Skenderbej]

Makes you wonder about the “pilots’ union”...

[Skenderbej]

No, my Mercedes does that with the cruise control crash-avoidance software!

[Moltke]

Perhaps they accidentally hit the Warp Drive button for a second or two...whooooshhhh...

[CARTOUCHE]

It wasn’t long ago on a Southwest flight that I went forward and observed a flight attendant sitting in her jump seat and talking on her cell inflight. Cell phones ‘off’ rules are only for us apparently.

[muawiyah]

Definitely, particularly the existence of the time dilation effect in this case.

The pilots were just snatched away, their private parts examined by little gray guys with big heads, and then, as they zoned out, they were stuffed right back in their seats.

[MHGinTN]

The UFO pacing their flight got too close and ‘fowled up’ their electromagnetic signalling sytstems.

[muawiyah]

You’ve never been on the regular lanes of I95 rolling into DC!

[Feckless]

Maybe the last hot stewardess was on that flight.....

[BIGLOOK]

In that case it was definitely pilot fatigue, was it not?

Flights into Hilo begin a around 0600 and end around 1800; this incident took place on a midmorning flight so it was probably a second rotation for the pilots.

It happened on Go! Airlines which is Mesa Airline which in turn is a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines, the same companies that overflew Minneapolis.

Fatigue? I don't know but these guys aren't high on the pay scale living in a high rent area.

Go! figure!

[ops33]

The article doesn’t say at what point in the flight Air Traffic was unable to contact the aircraft. Ordinarily, the enroute controller would hand the aircraft off to the apporach controller and begin the descent to land about 40 - 60 miles from the destination. We also don’t know what air traffic facility had control of the aircraft, Minneapolis Center or Minneapolis approach control. If the handoff was already completed from Center to approach control the aircraft’s speed would have been reduced.

[ASOC]

WHat a thoughtful and insightful post. Thanks

[Sacajaweau]

Since the jets weren't called in and they weren't shot down and they are going to testify almost immediately and the stewardesses weren't in a frenzy and the passengers weren't in a frenzy and no one who greeted the passengers were in a frenzy, I'd say this was a planned event.

Oh, the poor media...left out of the loop....

[grame]

funny story.
My husband was in the hospital having a 5-way bypass. A couple of days before the surgery, flowers came to the room while our four children happened to all be present. Someone checked the card for a name which was Otto Masters. We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out who this was as no one recognized the name. We later realized it was a phone order and one of my sons worked for AutoMasters at the time. That was good for more than a few laughs.

[expatpat]

They weren’t answering the radio well before they got to Minneapolis the first time. They were asleep....

[expatpat]

No, they would have been alerted by lack of radio communication if they had a wrong frequency and had been awake.

[downtownconservative]

Air planes fly in and out of various frequency sectors. Simple inattentiveness can lead to prolonged periods of non-radio contact.

The radios never really go silent, as there will almost always be some frequency chatter heard from other vicinity aircraft, even when out of range of the ATC transmitter, due to the extended line-of-sight maintained between high altitude aircraft.

Once it is realized that radio contact with ATC has been lost, finding a frequency that works for the existing location takes some research. Modern airliners do not monitor “guard” frequency the way military aircraft do.

Often times, ATC will call the airline dispatch to get an ACARS message (called SELCAL) to the crew to alert them to the problem.

This is not a totally isolated occurrance. But when coupled with an improperly set up FMC, it can lead to major embarrassment and loss of safety margin.

I really doubt the “asleep” assumption.

[expatpat]

finding a frequency that works for the existing location takes some research

Not really. Any en-route IFR chart has a list of relevant frequencies on it. "Simple inattentiveness" includes a snooze, of course. It wouldn't be the first time the whole cockpit crew fell asleep.