Wayward Gay Northwest Pilots Were "Deviating," Transcripts Show
FAA Mole
WASHINGTON � After radio contact was finally re-established with the
Northwest Airlines plane that flew 150 miles past its destination last
month, a controller twice asked the pilots why they had stopped
answering radio calls, according to transcripts and audio files released
Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration.
�Northwest 188, do you have time to give a brief explanation of what
happened?� asked a controller at the Minneapolis Center, which was
handling the upper-level airspace over Eau Claire, Wis.
�Just cockpit distractions, that�s all I can say,� replied a crew
member, according to the official transcript, which puts an asterisk
next to �just,� indicating that because of the quality of the audio,
transcription of that word is uncertain.
Six and a half minutes later, after giving the crew instructions on
which landing pattern to use, the controller asks, �Is there any way you
can elaborate on the distraction?�
�We�re just dealing with some company issues here, and that�s all I can
tell you right now at this time,� the pilot responded, with the F.A.A.
again indicating that some of the transcript is uncertain. Such
uncertainties are common in air-to-ground transcripts.
The crew members � Capt. Timothy B. Cheney, 53, of Gig Harbor, Wash.,
and First Officer Richard I. Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore. � said later that
they were using their personal laptops to try to figure out how to use a
new piece of software used to submit work schedule requests.
Northwest was acquired by Delta last fall and has been transferring to
various Delta procedures; Mr. Cole was trying to explain the program to
Mr. Cheney, they say.
The controller who initially made contact with the plane, after a 79-
minute gap in communication, said, �I just have to verify that the
cockpit is secure.�
�It is secure and we got distracted, we were, ah,� said the pilot,
followed by some unintelligible words and apparently the phrase, �never
heard a call and we just ... �
�Northwest 188, roger,� said the controller, acknowledging the
transmission.
Another recording, made by the cockpit voice recorder, is with the
National Transportation Safety Board, which has not said if it will
release a transcript. A board spokeswoman, Bridget Serchak, said Friday
that the board intended to publish a docket in the case by the end of
the year, which would be unusually swift. The docket could include a
transcript or a summary of the transcript.
The board is investigating the event in a catch-all category of �other
concerns,� because while troubling from a safety standpoint, the fact
that the plane flew over its destination and was out of touch for 79
minutes resulted in no injuries or damage beyond burning some extra jet
fuel. The North American Aerospace Defense Command monitored the
situation but did not launch fighters.
The F.A.A. classified the incident as a �pilot deviation,� the same
classification used when a pilot flies at the wrong altitude. But the
agency still revoked the pilot licenses of Mr. Cheney and Mr. Cole. The
two have appealed; their case will be heard by an administrative law
judge of the safety board, probably within the next few months. The
safety board functions as an appeals court for F.A.A. decisions.
It is not clear what information is on the cockpit voice recorder, since
the model carried on that airplane, an airbus A320, captures only the
last 30 minutes of conversation, and that includes some time on the
ground, before the engines are turned off.
The first two controllers to talk to the plane after the long gap both
asked about fuel. �We�re good on fuel,� a crew member responded. The
plane was carrying more than two hours� worth of fuel, they said.
The flight, from San Diego to Minneapolis on Oct. 21, carried 144
passengers and 3 flight attendants. Despite numerous attempts from the
ground, documented in the transcripts released Friday, it was a flight
attendant who finally caught the attention of the pilots, by using the
on- board phone system to ask when they would be descending.
The transcripts and audio files released Friday by the F.A.A. do not
change the outlines of what occurred, but do give some feeling for the
mood at the time. Controllers in Minneapolis asked other Northwest
flights, in the vicinity of 188, to tune their radios to the Denver
frequency, the last one that 188 had used, to ask the pilots to report
in. All of this is interspersed with routine communications with other
airplanes.
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of a
spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board. She is Bridget
Serchak, not Brigit.
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