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

Telegraph ^ | 10/24/09 | Philip Sherwell

[downtownconservative]

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.

[jackibutterfly]

<>i>"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."

But, what about the radio? You're right, an odd incident.

[jackibutterfly]

That’s pretty funny, but what does that have to do with THIS story???

[grame]

nothin’ but your in your picture the ‘autopilot’ guy was named “Otto”. Made me think of it.

[justlurking]

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.

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.

[CARTOUCHE]

No, not and airphone.

[Clinging Bitterly]

"lost situational awareness"

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?

[norton]

Brett who?

[Lockbar]

"They were FReeping."

hee hee, lol. good one

[glorgau]

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”.

[jackibutterfly]

Oh. OK. :-)

[fedupjohn]

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

Man, I'm thinking the same thing.

[ops33]

It is bizarre. One poster mentioned the possibility of some type of sexual activity in the flight deck. That may be true. The pilots said that they were distracted by their laptops. That doesn't explain why they didn't answer their radios.

[zipper]

I think I know what the problem was.

[Sloth]

Last night, on the news we saw the video clip of the pilot who stated "we were not fighting and we were not sleeping. We'll tell you more next week." Mrs. IllumiNaughtyByNature said, "they must have been having sex."

Maybe they fought first, made up & had sex, then fell asleep cuddling.

[Sloth]

That kid is such a crybaby. They’re clearly on approach — a few more minutes and he’ll be safe.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

All that time they were chasing a kid in a balloon.

[Whiskeyjim]

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?

[DUMBGRUNT]

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

If there had been an attractive younger female flight attendant... This could only happen by crossing a time warp!