****-pit of a plane.

So do you believe their story?????



Aviation authorities have launched an investigation in the US after a pilot overshot his destination by 150 miles and had to turn back.

An alert was sparked when a Northwest Airlines flight from San Diego to Minneapolis lost radio contact with air-traffic controllers for more than an hour.

The Airbus A320, with 144 passengers on board, was 150 miles off course by the time the pilots realised the error, re-established communications and requested permission to turn around.

By this time, the US military had been alerted and had put fighter jets on stand-by, reports Sky News.

The pilots reportedly told the Federal Aviation Administration that they lost track of where they were during a "heated discussion" over airline policy.

They must have been doing something they shouldnt have been doing

They probably fell asleep. The controls are all automated. At 500 miles per hour fifteen minutes will send you a long way. When they awakened, they probably chatted about what to do and knew the cockpit recorder only ran for the last thirty minutes so they knew they had to start doing the right thing as least thirty minutes before landing. They should have come up with a better excuse.

They never began preparations for landing. Those preparations usually begin between 100-150 miles from the destination. So you could say they flew almost 300 miles before the cabin crew finally alerted them that something was wrong. This is just another example of a serious problem within the aviation industry.

having recently retired as an airline transport pilot flying large international executive jets i can assure you that there are relatively few serious problems within aviation if any. expecially when compared to a few decades ago. the passengers were never in any real danger. the autopilot did the flying and atc cleared the airspace. this is a very rare occorance but it does happen on occasion. i have two freinds who were flying a charter aircraft from ny to burbank. they'd flown all day from paris, dropped off the pax in ny and were dead heading home in the early morning hours. the flight attendent was sleeping in the back and the pilots fell asleep over the rockies and didn't wake up until they were a couple hundred miles over the pacific. they both lost their tickets for a year and of course their jobs.

the faa has been studying a nasa report for a decade which suggests that one pilot be allowed to "power nap" in the cockpit when necessary. why they're taking so long to implement such a rule is beyond me. a nap in the cockpit sure beats the hell out of a doasing pilot on short final in fog when the engine fire waring bell goes off in the cockpit.

I disagree that there are relatively few examples. If you look at the NTSB's accident/incident reports, more than half are due to pilot error. The commuter crash in Buffalo was caused by several egregious errors committed by the flight crew. The verdict on the Air France crash is still out, but I would conclude that flying into a massive cluster of thunderstorms isn't a wise decision. There is no excuse for pilots flying from LA to Minneapolis needing to take a nap. That's absurd.

it is absurd. would never say otherwise and hopefully they'll never fly again. but your ntsb statistics are in error. fully eighty five percent of all accident reports show that crew error is a contributing factor especially where weather is concerned. i'm not saying pilots don't make errors. they do and far to often but the accident rate continues a steady decline. the main problem in US aviation today is a shortage of runways. the skys are becoming more crowded every day and we recently reduced vertical separation to one thousand feet above eighteen thousand feet where jet transports fly. colision avoidance technology allowed this to become feasable and safe but without runways for airplanes to land on the skys remain congested moreso than would be otherwise.

pilot error has always been a factor and new training techniques such as crew resource mangement is reducing that factor to one that rarely compromises safety. obviously this northwest crew did a poor job of managing crew resources.

And people wonder why I'm afraid to fly...

It turns out they weren't asleep, and were using their personal laptops in the cockpit when they overshot the airport. Morons.

http://www.startribune.com/business/65982292.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU1yDEmP:QMDCinchO7DU

I have a hard time believing they didn't fall asleep. They are professionals and I don't believe knowing what the stakes are that they would ignore communication for over an hour. One way to prove the laptop theory, is have their laptops looked at and I have a strong suspicion that is going to happen.

http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/3822936

no, it turns out that news reports say that the pilots CLAIMED during an ntsb hearing that they were not asleep and were using their personal laptops. only two people know what actually went on in that cocpit.

thats bc they stop you from buying drinks after 10!

Hmmm, that sounds like something that we would ALL do on here...LMAO!!! Just to get our E-Crack on ;)

doubtful, unless they are charged with a crime. moot point anyway. regardless of the reason, they busted a ton of airspace without clearance and neglected mandatory communications and quite possibly fuel reserves. and of course there's the catch all the faa calls "careless and reckless operation of an aircraft" as a fall back. unfortunately the faa is often arbitrary and inconsistent in doling out punnishment for idiots like these two and the company still has the union to deal with before taking action. sad but there's a union for you just doing what unions do.

What if someone charged them with a crime? Saying that they were sleeping and got subpoenas to look at their laptops. I know it sounds far fetched but it looks to me that these 2 pilots are gonna be scapegoats or made an example of.

I'm sure somehow it was all George Bush'a fault

they should be made an example of. they're not in the least scapegoats. if their own testimony is true they are two highly unprofessional, incompitent and negligent idiots who should be grounded and fired. as for a crime, violating a FAR, even several as they did, is not a criminal offense. we've all busted a reg or two unintentionally. in fact as regulated as aviation is in this country it's damn near impossible not to violate something on a regular basis. but whatever these idiots did the fact is that they failed to carry out their two primary duties that every pilot holds as priority over all else and for what we are paid to do; AVIATE AND NAVIGATE.

I heard, they were nudging girls on mingle2 and replying to topics here with their laptops and lost the sense of time.

Arguing about why we shouldn't be in illegal wars!

This happened out here in NY not to long ago with a train, the engineer was texting, and missed a track signal and caused a crash..

I hope they fire these idiots...