[PGR88]

Out of contact for an hour, but only flew 150 mph past the airport?

Jets travel at 600 mph.

[mnehring]

Good catch, maybe they were circling?

[Paul46360]

But they do “slow” down to approach. You don’t drive 35mph directly into your garage and then hit the brakes...or do you???!!!

[Alter Kaker]

Out of contact for an hour, but only flew 150 mph past the airport? Jets travel at 600 mph.

They were out of contact before they got to the airport.

[A knight without armor]

I think they lost contact with them way before they were near the airport.

Wouldn’t it be a hoot if it turns out they were like half way to the North Pole, realized it, and turned back and waited until they were just 150 miles off the path before they responded?

[BIGLOOK]

Out of contact for an hour, but only flew 150 mph past the airport?

It's puzzling as it stands but the tower was probably expecting the flight to land on it's schedule and started hailing them about a hundred miles out. The tower may have noticed that the flight hadn't descended below 24,000 approach. No radio contact and an aircraft flying right over top at altitude wasn't a threat (to them) but drove 'em nuts. Then calls were made to inform Homeland Security et al of the errant aircraft. So the time frame would be one hour but distances extended to maybe 250-300 miles, until the flight attendant woke 'em up.

We had a similar incident of an overflight here a year or so ago. A flight from Honolulu to Hilo over flew the a/p, out of contact for 20 minutes before turning around and landing. Those flights are only 45 minutes long and everybody on the a/c knew something was wrong....all they had to do was check their watches and look out the windows and see Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa pass by.

[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.

[expatpat]

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