Pilot who overshot airport denies crew was napping - AOL Money & Finance »
Posted By orndorffter 1 month, 1 week ago in NewsThe first officer of the Northwest Airlines jet that missed its destination by 150 miles says there was no fight in the cockpit, neither he nor the captain had fallen asleep and the passengers were never in any danger.
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orndorffter
I love to listen to people young and old no matterwhat their age is.and jf any way that I can be of help or ...
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Sludge-Guzzler1 month, 1 week ago
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Speaking as a former airline pilot with Eastern A/L, I can assure you the controls were "not" failing. All airline flights operate under IFR rules (Instrument Flight) regardless of weather. Right after take-off the tower hands the flight over to Departure Control. During this time the Captain is still flying the airplane. Once Departure Control instructs the Captain to guide the aircraft away from congested airspace, Departure Control hands the flight off to "Center" and they watch it on radar for the duration. During this time the Captain hands the control to the 1st Officer (Co-Pilot). Autopilot is engaged and it takes the aircraft to it's destination with the 1st Officer monitoring.
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Once the aircraft gets close to it's destination, (around 50 miles or so) Center hands the aircraft over to Approach Control who gives the flight crew instructions as a new heading, decent to a traffic pattern altitude, etc. Approach Control watches the aircraft approach until it is time to hand it over to the destination tower for final landing instructions.
With modern GPS navigation as well as several precision instrument approach systems available, it is virtually impossible to overshoot your destination by 150 miles unless you were in fact "asleep at the wheel." If the autopilot is still engaged and the pilots do not take over manually, the aircraft will overshoot it's destination. However, after so many miles (and alarms, both audio & visual) the autopilot will actually do a 180 (turn the aircraft around) and fly back to it's last setting all by itself. This back & forth nonsense will continue until the pilot switches the autopilot off or the aircraft runs out of fuel. If ATC was attempting to contact the pilots by cell phone, radio, and messaging, the only logical explanation is that both pilots were asleep. Behavior like this is grounds for immediate termination after the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) drags them over the coals.
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BronxBomber1 month, 1 week ago
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That does it! I suggest that ALL flights be mandatorily video taped in the cockpit's in case of an hazardous eventuality, and to be a better preventative for any type of incompetence in part of the cockpit crew for future investigations. Call what you will; 'invasion of privacy' if you must, but I firmly believe that public safety should come first and be of maximum importance. That's just IMHO.
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orndorffter1 month, 1 week ago
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Bronx's I think that what you suggested is a good suggestion, and the public safety should come first. I dont call it invasion of privacy, and noone else shold either.
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That a good idea you came up with, if you could just get it out who knows, they may just take you up on that. But who would you talk to about something like this?
Knowen you, you well find away wont you? It would be mush safer and they would know what went and goes on. Hey I like that. -
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777Driver1 month, 1 week ago
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Video Cameras would not have helped in this situation. It still would have happened and still would have put people in danger. The only difference is that we would know what happened after the fact. This aircraft was equipped with a 30 minute loopping voice recorder that would haver recorded what was occurring in the cockpit but since it took longer than 30 minutes to land after the pilots retook control those critical time periods were recorded over. Planes like mine record for a much longer period of time. Video would not have prevented this or increased public safety. It would only help in the investigation afterward.
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frctm51 month, 1 week ago
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According to personnel on board, they were debating airline policy. I suspect that this was what happened when they were in proximity to the airport and caused them to not pay attention to the warning lights that they were close to the airport. Once they had missed their destination and the lights went off, they waited for it to arrive until they realized their mistake. I mean would you have a heated argument and then fall asleep after it? Usually your too charged with adrenaline to shut down after an argument.
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Sludge-Guzzler1 month, 1 week ago
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Sooner or later they will admit they were asleep. The only other explanation would be to have the wrong destination entered into the GPS. Minneapolis is MSP. Entering MSP will set up the correct coordinates. Even so, there are too many other systems on board in case one fails. It is called redundancy. Bottom line, they fell asleep and will probably lose their jobs. You don't become an airline pilot without a couple thousand hours in the air and you have to be "type" rated in every different aircraft that weighs over 12,500 pounds. (IE) Boeing 727 or Boeing 747.
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Maybe the bus company is hiring...................
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classifiedsaComment removed: Spammer, Hard Banned
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bullseye661 month, 1 week ago
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Oh please.. you (as a pilot) can't "argue" yourself 150 miles past your landing airport; and the traffic controllers apparently tried their best to contact these two clowns. They obviously dozed off; maybe they were even drinking before they got onto the plane.
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