Airliner loses contact, overflies destination

[Marilyn. 340]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Northwest Airlines flight carrying 144 passengers from San Diego to Minneapolis lost contact with air controllers for more than an hour and overflew its destination by 150 miles, officials said on Thursday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the two pilots of Flight 188, an Airbus A320, told authorities after landing safely on Wednesday night that they had become distracted during a "heated discussion about airline policy."

The NTSB said on Thursday it would review the plane's flight data and voice recorders and interview the pilots. Among other issues, investigators will explore crew fatigue to see if the pilots were tired, the NTSB said.

Northwest is owned by Delta Air Lines, which said the pilots had been relieved from active flying pending completion of the NTSB investigation and an internal probe by Delta.

Safety board investigations can take several months to complete.

The plane was flying at 37,000 feet when it lost radio contact between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. EDT.

Flight 188 was 150 miles off course by the time the crew re-established communications and requested permission to turn around, officials said.

Airport police boarded the plane in Minneapolis to ensure there had not been a hijacking or other criminal activity, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport said.

Military authorities were alerted during the incident and put fighter jets on stand-by status temporarily, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said.

It was the second unusual incident involving a U.S. airliner this week.

On Monday, a Delta Boeing 767 with 182 passengers landed on a taxiway instead of its assigned runway at Atlanta's Hartsfield airport. The taxiway, which was parallel to the runway, was active but cleared of ground traffic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091023/od_nm/us_pilots

[NickD 203]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Northwest Airlines flight carrying 144 passengers from San Diego to Minneapolis lost contact with air controllers for more than an hour and overflew its destination by 150 miles, officials said on Thursday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the two pilots of Flight 188, an Airbus A320, told authorities after landing safely on Wednesday night that they had become distracted during a "heated discussion about airline policy."

The NTSB said on Thursday it would review the plane's flight data and voice recorders and interview the pilots. Among other issues, investigators will explore crew fatigue to see if the pilots were tired, the NTSB said.

Northwest is owned by Delta Air Lines, which said the pilots had been relieved from active flying pending completion of the NTSB investigation and an internal probe by Delta.

Safety board investigations can take several months to complete.

The plane was flying at 37,000 feet when it lost radio contact between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. EDT.

Flight 188 was 150 miles off course by the time the crew re-established communications and requested permission to turn around, officials said.

Airport police boarded the plane in Minneapolis to ensure there had not been a hijacking or other criminal activity, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport said.

Military authorities were alerted during the incident and put fighter jets on stand-by status temporarily, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said.

It was the second unusual incident involving a U.S. airliner this week.

On Monday, a Delta Boeing 767 with 182 passengers landed on a taxiway instead of its assigned runway at Atlanta's Hartsfield airport. The taxiway, which was parallel to the runway, was active but cleared of ground traffic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091023/od_nm/us_pilots

As a private pilot even flying at 180 mph, for a thousand mile trip, can get pretty boring, you know you are going to be tied up for the next six hours. Was great at first compared to driving, can fly as the crow flies that knocks off another 300-400 miles off a trip the way the road curve back and forth. Think they did that so congressman can buy bit of land here and there and make sure the road crosses through their property so they can sell it at a profit. So I can see where these pilots get bored. Brother got his ATR, but found it too boring of a job with a zillion regulations to learn, plus the panic of passing a flight physical every six months, get a minor problem, and you are history. Cousin quit for awhile, was making eleven hour trips for the UPS, but went back, being an airline pilot isn't all they make it up to be.

Regarding that Delta flight with 182 passengers, can only wonder if those pilots do part time work as crop dusters, those guys are crazy and will take off right from the hangar to save a minute. When the crop dusters come to our airport, a good time to stay home.

I really hate traveling via the airlines, but really the only way when going overseas, unless I win the lottery and can buy a Gulfstream, so far, no luck.

[Marilyn. 340]

I saw this story on the news last night and they suspect that the pilots might have fallen asleep..

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I saw this story on the news last night and they suspect that the pilots might have fallen asleep..

Or they could have been engaged in sexual acivity.

[mawilson 2,133]

Or they could have been engaged in sexual acivity.

What's a civity?