Asleep at the joystick?
Oct 23, 2009 17:24:53 GMT
Post by imec on Oct 23, 2009 17:24:53 GMT
Pilotswho flew plane 150 miles past US airport should have had many warnings
Fri Oct 23, 5:15 AM
By Joan Lowy, The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON - The two Northwest Airlines pilots should have had numerous warnings that their flight was nearing its destination in Minneapolis. Controllers were trying to reach the plane by radio.
When that didn't work, normal procedure would be to have the airline's dispatcher also try to raise the plane using a phone-like device that chimes.
The Airbus A320's brightly lit cockpit flight displays should have shown the pilots that it was time to start descending to land.
Instead, the plane, en route from San Diego with 144 passengers and a crew of five, passed over Minneapolis at 37,000 feet just before 9 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0100 GMT Thursday). Contact with controllers wasn't established until 14 minutes later, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident. By that time, the plane was over Eau Claire, Wisconsin, more than 100 miles (160 kilometres) beyond Minneapolis.
Even that should have been a clue. One of the things most pilots are attuned to when flying, even above 30,000 feet, are city lights. The bright lights of Minneapolis should have alerted the pilots that they were over their destination, just as the dimmer lights of Eau Claire should have warned them they were in the wrong place, experts said.
Yet, the pilots didn't discover their mistake until a flight attendant in the cabin contacted them over the intercom, said a source close to the investigation who wasn't authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. The pilots had lost communications with air traffic controllers for over an hour and had overflown their destination by 150 miles (240 kilometres). The plane turned around, landed safely and no one was injured.
Fri Oct 23, 5:15 AM
By Joan Lowy, The Associated Press
ADVERTISEMENT
WASHINGTON - The two Northwest Airlines pilots should have had numerous warnings that their flight was nearing its destination in Minneapolis. Controllers were trying to reach the plane by radio.
When that didn't work, normal procedure would be to have the airline's dispatcher also try to raise the plane using a phone-like device that chimes.
The Airbus A320's brightly lit cockpit flight displays should have shown the pilots that it was time to start descending to land.
Instead, the plane, en route from San Diego with 144 passengers and a crew of five, passed over Minneapolis at 37,000 feet just before 9 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0100 GMT Thursday). Contact with controllers wasn't established until 14 minutes later, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident. By that time, the plane was over Eau Claire, Wisconsin, more than 100 miles (160 kilometres) beyond Minneapolis.
Even that should have been a clue. One of the things most pilots are attuned to when flying, even above 30,000 feet, are city lights. The bright lights of Minneapolis should have alerted the pilots that they were over their destination, just as the dimmer lights of Eau Claire should have warned them they were in the wrong place, experts said.
Yet, the pilots didn't discover their mistake until a flight attendant in the cabin contacted them over the intercom, said a source close to the investigation who wasn't authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. The pilots had lost communications with air traffic controllers for over an hour and had overflown their destination by 150 miles (240 kilometres). The plane turned around, landed safely and no one was injured.