Posted on 10/28/2009 11:06:04 AM PDT by gandalftb
Armed F-16s from the Wisconsin Air National Guard were on the runway and could have shot down the errant Northwest flight, officials said today.
"As a force of last resort, NORAD is always prepared to do whatever is necessary," NORAD spokesperson Mike Kucharek told ABCNews.com.
Air traffic controllers feared Northwest Flight 188, might have been hijacked after its pilots failed to respond to radio transmissions for more than an hour.
Air traffic controllers reported the pilots initially failed to respond to commands as it passed from the air space controlled by the FAA Denver Center into the area controlled by the Minneapolis Center.
The concern grew as the pilots ignored a command from the Minneapolis approach controllers to begin a descent for landing.
The National Counterterrorism Center in Washington was notified, and authorities began to scrutinize the passenger list, according to Pierre Thomas and Jason Ryan of ABC News.
Once contact was re-established, after an hour and 18 minutes of silence, the controllers ordered the pilots to carry out a series of zigzag maneuvers in order to prove "the pilots had command and control of the craft,".
Controllers tried used a variety of FAA frequencies, the Northwest private frequency and texting services to contact the plane.
The pilots finally responded when contacted by the Denver controllers—-an indication they had not changed frequencies on their radios when they passed into the Minneapolis air space.
The pilots had to be asked three times if they were okay and had control of the plane.
The pilots said they had a "cockpit distraction" and were having a "heated discussion" about a "company issue,".
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
They had to intentionally ignore the radio calls, unless they were, in fact, incapacitated.....
Time for cockpit cameras?
Should there be a way for the cockpit door to be opened by the Flight Attendants?
Had I been on that flight, watching us fly over MN and well beyond...not sure I'd have sat quietly, not for 78 minutes....Flight 93 Militia needed?
No need for that - their licenses have already been revoked.
My thought is that the pilots were distracted by pornography.
wonder if we will ever know exactly what was going on. terrible PR for northwest, but they may not be able to squelch it.
Not sure how well they would shoot down the NW flight, when the “interceptors” were still on the ground.
What were they waiting on, a building to disappear?
Excuse no 1-your fired!
excuse no 2 your fired!
excuse etc. etc.
The FAA timeline shows that NW188 was out of contact with ATC for 51 minutes, from 19:24:16 CDT to approximately 20:14 CDT.
It also makes clear that NW188 last contacted Denver center 91 minutes prior to 20:14 CDT, or 18:43 CDT, which means they flew in Denver Center's airspace for 41 minutes without Denver trying to contact them either.
They missed at least 2 radio calls from Denver Center.
NW Dispatch made 8 attempts to contact them, beginning @ 19:32 CDT (42 minutes before NW188 contacted Minneapolis Center).
Or each other... Hey, stranger things have happened.....
One of the most sensationalistic headlines I've read in quite some time. They were "prepared" to shoot something down, something traveling at 600 MPH and at 30K feet, while they sat still on a tarmac? Ridiculous.
They were "prepared" to take off, intercept the aircraft and then make a threat assessment. They were no closer to "shooting down an aircraft", than I am of dating Cindy Crawford.
maybe they were looking for a radical course change that never occurred.
My guess is that they were either both sound asleep, or perhaps they were playing video games and were wearing headphones to keep the noise down.
Porno, or whatever program they claim to be using, doesn't keep people from hearing radio calls.
Are you saying Cindy is single these days?
These pilots story went from discussing airline policy to being on their laptops.
I wonder why was the seriousness of this not originally reported?
After that Egypt air pilot slammed the controls down to crash into the Atlantic and the black box had audio of him muttering “Allah Akbar” while the other pilot was trying to get him off the controls...
Yes, they need to have someone on board who can reach the cockpit. Armed preferrably. A bullet in the head would have allowed him to let go of the controls.
Something is really fishy about this though. I know I can get lost in internet surfing sometimes, but wouldn’t the flight crew page the pilots after say 15 minutes of passing the landing time? It would seem SOMEONE on that plane would have said, “Hey, what is up and why are we an hour late to land?” and brought the pilots out of their ‘distraction’.
Some of the hype surrounding this flight is just silly.
At the speeds these aircraft fly at today, how long does it take to go 150 miles?
When you pass the descent point for your destination the Airbus gives you a tone and CAS message along with VNAV bars on your display.
When you pass your last fix in the FMS (their destination in this case) the Airbus autopilot goes into heading hold with a tone and multiple CAS messages your big NAV display.
No way that physically alert pilots could miss those signals and tones. They are intentionally loud enough to wake a sleeping pilot......
The FAA already thought about this scenario years ago.
She lives in Hollywood. Since when did marriage keep anyone from dating there?
It's not her marriage vows that keep her from dating me - it's my oldness, my poorness and my unhipness.
No, because if it can be opened by a flight attendant, it can be opened by a flight attendant with a hijacker's knife at her throat.
Pilots should be subject to prison sentences for stuff like what these two did. That's more likely than anything else to put a stop to this sort of thing.
not to worry, Al Franken is on the case proposing new legislation.(sarc)
my bet is they were updating fantasy football picks.
Hype? They landed with 20 minutes of fuel left.
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