arguing pilots forget to land the plane

**zubber** · 23-10-2009, 08:25 PM

Arguing Pilots Overshoot Airport By 150 Miles

4 hours 10 mins ago

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Two airline pilots who overshot their destination by more than 150 miles, sparking a hijack alert, have admitted they were distracted by a "heated discussion" in the cockpit. Skip related content
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The Northwest Airlines flight from San Diego to Minneapolis, with 144 passengers on board, was cruising at 37,000 feet when it lost contact with air controllers for more than an hour.
It 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.
After heading back towards Minneapolis, the pilots landed the plane safely and were greeted by airport police who boarded the plane to rule out the possibility of a hijack.
The crew faced a grilling by FBI agents, and the pilots explained they had been in "a heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness", the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.
Voice and flight data recorders will now be analysed to check their story.
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said such a situation was unlikely to ever occur in Britain, because if pilots flew over their destination and carried on for 80 minutes, they would be likely to end up in another nation's airspace.
"By that time you'd be receiving persistent and insistent calls from the air traffic control of that airspace," he told Sky News Online.
"Here you file a flight plan and you stick to it, making frequent contact with the ground throughout that time.
"America's airspace is vast so I don't know how frequently they would have radio contact with air traffic control. I assume they would still raise warning flags though."
Northwest is owned by Delta Air Lines, which said the pilots would not fly again until the NTSB investigation and an internal probe by Delta were complete.
Meanwhile, aviation staff on a global forum speculated that the pilots' claim of becoming sidetracked by a work argument may have been an excuse - and that they in fact fell asleep.
One forum user wrote: "Zzzz... Of course that's just a guess, but it seems to be the most logical theory."
Arguing Pilots Overshoot Airport By 150 Miles - Yahoo! News UK

**ItsRobsLife** · 23-10-2009, 09:57 PM

Originally Posted by zubber

The crew faced a grilling by FBI agents, and the pilots explained they had been in "a heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness", the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

So they were talking about work for over an hour..

Originally Posted by zubber

Voice and flight data recorders will now be analysed to check their story.

Pilot 1 "shut it bitch"
Pilot 2 "who are you calling bitch? Bitch"
Pilot 1 "you, you dumb bitch"
Pilot 2 "don't call me a bitch"
Pilot 1 "well I don't see any other bitches round here, bitch"
Pilot 2 "oh, you are such a bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 1 "no, you're the bitch"
Pilot 2 "no, you're the bitch"...

**Muadib** · 23-10-2009, 10:15 PM

Overshooting an airport by 150 miles when your traveling 500+ mph only takes 10 - 15 minutes...

More likely they both fell asleep... Which can be supported by the fact that both pilots were disoriented when finally answering the ATC communication... If they had been in a heated debate, they would have been alert...

**ItsRobsLife** · 23-10-2009, 10:19 PM

Well yeah that's the sensible answer...

**Muadib** · 23-10-2009, 10:30 PM

Many moons ago when I was flying for a living, the lack of communications was likely due to the pilots doing lines of coke and banging the flight attendants in the cockpit...

**Fabian** · 24-10-2009, 12:25 PM

Originally Posted by Muadib

Many moons ago when I was flying for a living, the lack of communications was likely due to the pilots doing lines of coke and banging the flight attendants in the cockpit...

All of them?

**ItsRobsLife** · 23-10-2009, 10:36 PM

Now that's more like it!

**jandajoy** · 25-10-2009, 05:37 AM

I wasn't asleep, says pilot who forgot to land

By John Shovelan in Washington
Posted 1 hour 17 minutes ago

Related Story: Pilots in 'heated discussion' forgot to land plane

One of the pilots of a Northwest Airlines flight carrying 144 passengers that missed its destination of Minneapolis by 240 kilometres has denied he and the captain fell asleep at the controls.
First officer Richard Cole also denied they had an argument causing them to fly into the neighbouring state of Wisconsin before they turned around.
Air traffic controllers tried for more than an hour to contact the pilots.
Both were repeatedly called on their mobile phones and sent text messages but not until they were 240 kilometres past their destination did they respond.
Mr Cole would not say just what it was that led to them to forget to land but insisted they were not asleep or arguing.
The pilots have told authorities they were having a discussion.
This excuse however has prompted deep scepticism with the national transport safety board set to question them on Monday about whether they did fall asleep.

**Muadib** · 25-10-2009, 05:43 AM

The pilots have told authorities they were having hot ,nasty gay sex.

Well, if they weren't asleep...

**tongta** · 25-10-2009, 06:42 AM

Lets hope when they listen to the cockpit voice recorder they don't hear snoring!

**Muadib** · 25-10-2009, 06:47 AM

The pilots have the ability to erase the cockpit recordings at any time... Plus, they are in a 30 minute loop... Meaning they only record the last 30 minutes of activity...

**pickel** · 25-10-2009, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Both were repeatedly called on their mobile phones and sent text messages

So why do passengers have to turn off theirs?

**artist** · 25-10-2009, 05:25 PM

Could have been beause of a certain sexual deviation where one of them was blowing the other

**Marmite the Dog** · 25-10-2009, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by Muadib

The pilots have the ability to erase the cockpit recordings at any time... Plus, they are in a 30 minute loop... Meaning they only record the last 30 minutes of activity...

Why do they still use 1960's technology for these things?

**jandajoy** · 25-10-2009, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by pickel

So why do passengers have to turn off theirs?

My pilot mate says there's no real reason for turning them off. He reckons if all the passengers had all their phones turned on and transmitting at the same time it could produce a few hiccups, but highly unlikely.

**lingmau** · 27-10-2009, 10:20 AM

It's now reported that they were both using their laptops and lost track of time.

The next question is what game were they playing? Or were they simply surfing porn (which is, after all, the reason that the internet was invented)

**lingmau** · 27-10-2009, 10:23 AM

Or were they simply pissing themselves with laughter following the exploits of Bkkandrew in MKP?

**Mr R Sole** · 27-10-2009, 11:37 AM

Maybe they were chatting on TD??? stranger things have happenend...

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