Thursday, October 22, 2009
Deeply Engrossed in Something or Other
I don't know about you, but I prefer my airline pilots to be awake in the cockpit. Especially if I am counted among the passengers on the flight in question.
I say this because I caught this little tidbit via the CNN website. "Airline Crew Flies 150 Miles Past Airport." It seems that a Northwest Airlines flight from San Diego to Minneapolis went quiet, meaning they did not respond to radio calls, for over an hour. They passed their destination by approximately 150 miles, sixteen minutes of flying time.
Maybe they wanted to go fishing in the Boundary Waters.
The pilot and co-pilot's explanation for this lack of communication with two different air traffic control stations smacks of, shall I say, a statement pulled out of someone's ass. They were having "a heated discussion regarding airline policy and lost situational awareness." For over an hour. They were so engrossed in conversation that they failed to respond to radio calls from two different FAA control stations.
The aircraft, an Airbus A320, was always on radar and showed no signs of mechanical distress, flying straight and level at 37,000 feet, leading most people to believe that autopilot was engaged. Denver air traffic controllers had communicated with the pilots, then lost touch with them to the point that they called the Northwest dispatcher to attempt contact. Denver control handed the aircraft off to Minneapolis air traffic control as a NORDO, the designation for 'no radio communication.'
FAA officials secured the cockpit recorder and flight data recorder, and have placed the pilots under investigation. The cockpit recorder is a sensitive piece of equipment and records all cockpit noises, including snoring.
I should say at this point that it is a rare occasion that pilots fall asleep on the job, but it has happened.
Northwest is now owned by Delta, who also had an embarrassing event this week. A pilot landed on a taxiway instead of the runway at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport. Oops. It's fortunate that there were no planes actually taxiing on the taxiway.
So until the investigation is complete we'll have to go with the pilots' explanation. They lost situational awareness. For over an hour. A lot can happen in an hour. A commercial airliner can easily travel 550 miles in an hour. That would give it an eleven hundred mile possible spread. If the center of the circle with a 550 mile radius is Chicago, the circle could reach both Pittsburgh and Omaha. Duluth and Memphis. Far.
I'm hoping that the pilots were engaged in a debate, and not sleeping. Hell, anything is possible.
I say this because I caught this little tidbit via the CNN website. "Airline Crew Flies 150 Miles Past Airport." It seems that a Northwest Airlines flight from San Diego to Minneapolis went quiet, meaning they did not respond to radio calls, for over an hour. They passed their destination by approximately 150 miles, sixteen minutes of flying time.
Maybe they wanted to go fishing in the Boundary Waters.
The pilot and co-pilot's explanation for this lack of communication with two different air traffic control stations smacks of, shall I say, a statement pulled out of someone's ass. They were having "a heated discussion regarding airline policy and lost situational awareness." For over an hour. They were so engrossed in conversation that they failed to respond to radio calls from two different FAA control stations.
The aircraft, an Airbus A320, was always on radar and showed no signs of mechanical distress, flying straight and level at 37,000 feet, leading most people to believe that autopilot was engaged. Denver air traffic controllers had communicated with the pilots, then lost touch with them to the point that they called the Northwest dispatcher to attempt contact. Denver control handed the aircraft off to Minneapolis air traffic control as a NORDO, the designation for 'no radio communication.'
FAA officials secured the cockpit recorder and flight data recorder, and have placed the pilots under investigation. The cockpit recorder is a sensitive piece of equipment and records all cockpit noises, including snoring.
I should say at this point that it is a rare occasion that pilots fall asleep on the job, but it has happened.
Northwest is now owned by Delta, who also had an embarrassing event this week. A pilot landed on a taxiway instead of the runway at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport. Oops. It's fortunate that there were no planes actually taxiing on the taxiway.
So until the investigation is complete we'll have to go with the pilots' explanation. They lost situational awareness. For over an hour. A lot can happen in an hour. A commercial airliner can easily travel 550 miles in an hour. That would give it an eleven hundred mile possible spread. If the center of the circle with a 550 mile radius is Chicago, the circle could reach both Pittsburgh and Omaha. Duluth and Memphis. Far.
I'm hoping that the pilots were engaged in a debate, and not sleeping. Hell, anything is possible.
