Plane Overshoots Airport by 150 Miles

[StormingB81]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569201,00.html

MINNEAPOLIS — Two Northwest Airlines pilots failed to make radio contact with ground controllers for more than an hour and overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles before discovering the mistake and turning around.

I mean how can you miss it by 150 miles??? I can see maybe just maybe like a few miles and saying opps! but wow! 150 miles?!?!?! Add those guys to the unemployemment rate!

[Dionne]

At minimum the pilots violated flight deck protocol. Initial descent from 37,000 was missed. This is serious......it basically means neither of the pilots were paying attention to the aircraft in flight for about 20 minutes. I could understand this happening somewhere out over the Pacific, but definitely not on approach.

[coriolis]

Maybe they were trying to qualify for the mile high club.

[Dionne]

I joined......out over the Gulf of Alaska in '76 on the red eye into Anchorage. But since they started letting men be "stewardesses".....it just doesn't appeal to me anymore!

[Dionne]

Okay....so we've got this flight that goes into a blackout mode for 78 minutes. Both pilots says they were not sleeping nor in an argument.

Both pilots say that they cannot say anything as the investigation continues. Both pilots appear to be upset/bummed out.....maybe even a little bit rattled.

Now the FAA is saying they are going to question the flight attendants.

How is it possible that none of the passengers noticed the lapse in time? I fly quite a bit with work.....there is no way I would lose 78 minutes of flight time. You know departure and arrival time. Frequent fliers on that route would definitely know something was awry.

Why all the secrecy?

[vbhoutex]

Okay....so we've got this flight that goes into a blackout mode for 78 minutes. Both pilots says they were not sleeping nor in an argument.

Both pilots say that they cannot say anything as the investigation continues. Both pilots appear to be upset/bummed out.....maybe even a little bit rattled.

Now the FAA is saying they are going to question the flight attendants.

How is it possible that none of the passengers noticed the lapse in time? I fly quite a bit with work.....there is no way I would lose 78 minutes of flight time. You know departure and arrival time. Frequent fliers on that route would definitely know something was awry.

Why all the secrecy?

That is exactly what I want to know.

[Derek Ortt]

everyone cannot recall the 78 minutes?

a missing time experience or something? I am at a loss as what to think if EVERYONE cannot recall the 78 minutes of missing time

[Dionne]

everyone cannot recall the 78 minutes?

a missing time experience or something? I am at a loss as what to think if EVERYONE cannot recall the 78 minutes of missing time

So far, one woman has come forward....she was a passenger....she said everything seemed normal throughout the flight.

CNN recently reported that a "situational awareness" on behalf of the pilots happened. Is this like a time & space disorientation?

EDIT: Was the Orionid meteor shower happening.....were they on a night flight? I caught 3 hours of meteor entries while on St Croix and can definitely say it would be something of a distraction.

[mf_dolphin]

Now they say distraction due the pilots being on their laptops....

[vbhoutex]

Now they say distraction due the pilots being on their laptops....

Doing what? Don't even get me started!!!

[srainhoutx]

You have now entered...

[vbhoutex]

Best explanation yet!!

[Dionne]

Now they say distraction due the pilots being on their laptops....

Worse scenario yet. This means the pilots don't have time to do their homework between flights? Are pilots now sleeping in a site specific area for them rather than a nearby hotel? Best question yet......what are they doing on their laptops at 37K and 500 mph?

My guess is politics, sports and women.

[Stephanie]

Okay....so we've got this flight that goes into a blackout mode for 78 minutes. Both pilots says they were not sleeping nor in an argument.

Both pilots say that they cannot say anything as the investigation continues. Both pilots appear to be upset/bummed out.....maybe even a little bit rattled.

Now the FAA is saying they are going to question the flight attendants.

How is it possible that none of the passengers noticed the lapse in time? I fly quite a bit with work.....there is no way I would lose 78 minutes of flight time. You know departure and arrival time. Frequent fliers on that route would definitely know something was awry.

Why all the secrecy?

I'll bet that there were some passengers that asked. It took a flight attendant to finally make them aware of what had happened.

I still don't believe that they were on their laptops and THAT FOCUSED that they didn't hear the other pilots, the air traffic control, etc. trying to alert them. They didn't notice flashing lights or anything? Do they have the ability to turn speakers/lights off?

[mf_dolphin]

Maybe they were on S2K checking the weather

[Stephanie]

Maybe they were on S2K checking the weather

maybe....

[breeze]

Using their personal laptops is a violation of airline policy. The first officer was tutoring
the captain on a new Delta scheduling system:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/us/27plane.html?hp

[vbhoutex]

Okay....so we've got this flight that goes into a blackout mode for 78 minutes. Both pilots says they were not sleeping nor in an argument.

Both pilots say that they cannot say anything as the investigation continues. Both pilots appear to be upset/bummed out.....maybe even a little bit rattled.

Now the FAA is saying they are going to question the flight attendants.

How is it possible that none of the passengers noticed the lapse in time? I fly quite a bit with work.....there is no way I would lose 78 minutes of flight time. You know departure and arrival time. Frequent fliers on that route would definitely know something was awry.

Why all the secrecy?

I'll bet that there were some passengers that asked. It took a flight attendant to finally make them aware of what had happened.

I still don't believe that they were on their laptops and THAT FOCUSED that they didn't hear the other pilots, the air traffic control, etc. trying to alert them. They didn't notice flashing lights or anything? Do they have the ability to turn speakers/lights off?

Apparently they forgot to turn the flight attendants speakers off since she got through to them. I call BS on their explanation!!!

[Dionne]

I have a friend that is a pilot for Delta. Northwest and Delta recently merged. I asked him a few minutes ago if the scheduling was that difficult to understand....in that the pilots lost so much time trying to figure out the schedule.

His answer was one word. No.


EDIT: A second email from my buddy. I had replied to him asking if he was at liberty to discuss the event.....what the pilots are now calling the "minnie overflight"......his response as follows...

"Hell No. They were asleep, but I suppose I could be wrong...."

[HEY_NICE_PANTS]

Now they say distraction due the pilots being on their laptops....

FAA should check the times of their twitter posts.