Aviation News: Mystery deepens over what distracted pilots on plane that overshot by 150 miles
Jan Rasmussen
The mystery of the Northwest Airlines plane that overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles has deepened after the
first officer insisted that he and the pilot were not asleep or arguing.
Published: 6:39PM BST 24 Oct 2009
Richard Cole refuted two explanations put forward for the strange case
of NW flight 188 when the cockpit crew was out of radio contact for more
than an hour after flying past Minneapolis, their final stop on
Wednesday evening.
"Nobody was asleep in the cockpit. No arguments took place," Mr Cole
told a local television station from his home in Oregon. "But other than
that, I cannot tell you anything that went on because we're having
hearings this weekend, we're having hearings on Tuesday. All that
information will come out then."
He failed to provide any light on what did happen, but did insist that
there has been "a lot of misinformation...Things are being said that
didn't happen, but I can't go into any details".
The Airbus A320, carrying 144 people and five crew members, flew past
the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport beginning while en route
from San Diego, California, on Wednesday evening.
There were 78 minutes of radio silence before air traffic controllers
re-established radio contact after trying to contact the pilot and first
officer by radio, mobile phone, text messages and email.
Police who met the wayward jet said the pilots were "cooperative,
apologetic and appreciative". The two men passed a breathalyser test.
They were initially said to have explained that they had been involved
in a heated debate about the airline, which was recently taken over by
Delta.
"The pilot... indicated they had become involved in conversation and had
not heard radio communications," the report said. "They indicated there
had been no involvement from anyone in the cabin."
The lead flight attendant told officers she was unaware there had been
an incident aboard, the report said.
CNN reported that The National Transportation Safety Board, which is
investigating the incident, is hoping the plane's cockpit voice recorder
will either confirm the pilot's account or provide evidence of another
possible explanation, including whether the captain and first officer
had fallen asleep.
Earlier, the NTSB released a statement that said, "The crew stated they
were in a heated discussion over airline policy and they lost
situational awareness."
However, the voice recorder is capable of storing only 30 minutes of
audio and then automatically records over previous conversation. That
almost certainly means that anything said by the pilots during the time
they were out of contact would have been lost. But if they discussed the
earlier events en route back to Minneapolis after turning around, those
exchanges might still be available.
Jan Rasmussen