I’ve been doing and still have quite a bit of flying to do this year.  So reading about the 2 pilots on the Northwest Airlines flight who missed their destination is not exactly inspiring me with confidence.  There were suspicions that the pilots missed their landing in Minneapolis by 241 kilometres because they were arguing, or were asleep, but they are now claiming that they were discussing airline scheduling and using their laptops.  Hmmm, ok, so the guys driving the plane aren’t concentrating on the job at hand, but mucking around on their computers.  Sort of puts using a mobile phone while driving to shame.

The pilots were out of communication with air-traffic controllers and their airline for more than an hour and did not realise their mistake until contacted by a flight attendant asking about making preparations for landing.  I bet that was one of those “oh shit” moments for the pilots.  Air-traffic controllers in Denver and Minneapolis repeatedly tried without success to raise the pilots of the flight by radio. Other pilots in the vicinity tried reaching the plane on other radio frequencies. Their airline tried contacting them using a radio text message that chimes.  Authorities became so alarmed that National Guard jets were readied for take-off at two locations.

Despite what the pilots claim happened, people are having difficult swallowing it.  Many aviation safety experts had said it was more plausible that the pilots had fallen asleep during the cruise phase of their flight  than that they had become so focused on a conversation that they lost awareness of their surroundings.

I’m not sure which fills me with less confidence about flying, the pilots distracted, arguing or falling asleep.

Northwest Airlines, pilots, Minneapolis

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