Were pilots asleep?
A Delta Northwest flight -- with 147 passengers on board -- last week overshot its destination in the US by 150 miles before the cockpit crew realized the had to turn around.
The question everyone is asking is: 'how did this happen?'
The crew told investigators they were in a heated conversation about airline policy -- and lost track of the radio and the flight.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the flight -- en route from San Diego to Minneapolis -- just before 7pm and could not reach the crew for the next hour and 20 minutes. Not until 8:15pm -- when the crew re-established contact and requested permission to turn around from its location in Wisconsin.
After landing -- the crew explained that they'd been arguing and lost situational awareness. Some airline expert say it's likely the pilots fell asleep.
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Jesmond Micallef
Oct 26th 2009, 21:41
@Mr. James Nicholl,
Whichever way you look at it and whatever permutative arguments one can come up with, I still say:
"I WOULD NOT LIKE TO BE ON AN AIRCRAFT PILOTED BY SUCH "PILOTS".
M. Baron
Oct 26th 2009, 14:28
feel asleep my S...abyoen who believes two pilots can both fall asleep on a shorthaul flight (4hrs) deserves to have been on that flight
James Nicholl
Oct 26th 2009, 11:49
@Jesmond Micallef
"I WOULD NOT LIKE TO BE ON AN AIRCRAFT PILOTED BY SUCH "PILOTS".
And who would you KNOW or can TELL that you'll have such a crew in Command of your flight?
Enlighten me please.......
Jesmond Micallef
Oct 25th 2009, 15:41
As an air traveller and as a customer of the airline bussiness - I WOULD NOT LIKE TO BE ON AN AIRCRAFT PILOTED BY SUCH "PILOTS".
Hopefully, the investigation is torough and the lessons learned applied. I do also expect that proper action is taken towards these pilots. It is simply completely in-excusable behaviour from such a profession where passenger responsibilty is paramount.
Consider the following two cases:
An Brazilian passenger aircraft crash landed due to fuel starvation in the Amazonian jungle after the pilots got carried away listening to a football match on the aircrafts radio !!
An American passenger aircraft suffered a catastrophic engine failure after the pilots elected to conduct some flightdeck experimentation with the automatic engine controls during a commerical passenger carrying flight. !!