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Everyone has heard about the Northwest Airlines flight that departed San Diego bound for Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), and flew 150 miles past its destination before turning back and landing. According to the NTSB, after landing the pilots told the FBI and airport police that they had been in a heated discussion over airline policy and lost situational awareness. The FAA tracking data on the flight shows that the aircraft began its decent for landing more than 48 minutes before it eventually touched down at MSP. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) is being analyzed by the NTSB, but it will only reveal the last 30 minutes of cockpit conversation before the aircraft was powered down at the arrival gate. So unless the pilots actually discussed what had happened during the last 30 minutes of the flight, it is unlikely the CVR will provide any clues. The flight data recorder (FDR), which records aircraft systems data and pilot flight control inputs, is also being analyzed by the NTSB. Pursuant to normal operating procedure, the autopilot would have been flying vacation rentals southern california the aircraft while the pilots monitored the aircraft systems and communicated with air traffic controllers (ATC). Since the autopilot flies the aircraft with precision, and since the systems on an A320 are highly automated, as long as all the aircraft systems are operating vacation rentals southern california normally there is nothing for the pilots vacation rentals southern california to do in cruise flight. It is therefore unlikely the FDR will provide any clues as to what may have happened.
The flight departed San Diego at 3:00 PM PDT, and the NTSB says that ATC lost radio communications with the flight at 5:56 PM MDT. What the NTSB means by lost radio communications is not clear. vacation rentals southern california Does the NTSB mean that the last ATC communication vacation rentals southern california with the flight took place at 5:56 PM MDT, 1 hour and 56 minutes into the flight, or does the NTSB mean that at 5:56 PM MDT ATC unsuccessfully tried to communicate with the flight? FAA flight tracking data shows that at 5:17 PM MDT the flight began a climb from its initial cruise altitude of 35,000 feet to its final cruise altitude of 37,000 feet. If the last successful ATC communication with the flight was the instruction to climb to 37,000 feet, and 39 minutes later at 5:56 PM MDT ATC unsuccessfully tried to reach the flight, is it possible that a heated discussion vacation rentals southern california about airline policy vacation rentals southern california would prevent both the Captain and First Officer from responding to ATC radio calls? According to the NTSB, controllers reestablished communications at 8:14 PM CDT. This means that, according to the Captain, he and the First Officer were in a heated discussion for something between 1 hour 18 minutes and 1 hour 57 minutes, and it was so heated that they lost track of where they were. FAA flight tracking data shows a groundspeed of about 600 knots when MSP was overflown, and according to the NTSB the flight went another 150 miles, which would have taken about 15 minutes. This means the discussion was so heated vacation rentals southern california that neither pilot realized they had arrived at their destination until about 15 minutes vacation rentals southern california after they passed it, and and it was so heated they could not hear the frantic ATC calls that most certainly occurred. Or is it more likely that with nothing to do but monitor systems, and with no ATC communication for 39 minutes, the pilots were fatigued and fell asleep? Without knowing details of their working hours, it is impossible to say at this time whether vacation rentals southern california fatigue played a roll. But pilot fatigue has resulted in known past incidents vacation rentals southern california where crews fell asleep, and crew fatigue should not be ruled out here.
The pilots should have been expecting a crossing restriction or freq change vacation rentals southern california for that routing. Also one pilot should have been monitioring all status for flight if the other was otherwise involved. To miss your normal communication for over half the flight is unacceptable. Sorry but the rest of us do take our job serious. Yes we all clown around some and most have things we do enroute that doesn t include flying. However, missing vacation rentals southern california calls and operations messages is inherently dangerous. What if one call had been a traffic conflict and required immediate action or a early descent for traffic, once again sorry bad idea.
You are absolutely correct, Vic. It is incomprehensible to me that this could happen if both pilots were awake. Both of them miss calls from ATC and the company for so long, and not know where they were? I don t buy it, unless they were dozing.
It s all complete BS, why would anyone believe the explanation by the pilots, the union, the airlines or the FAA? Especially not our government; they are as bad as Fox “News”. Like the SEC, those in the FAA are idiots who are in charge of running vacation rentals southern california this country’s infrastructure and regulating its services. These pilots are as dangerous as was Maddoff. The SEC never asked to see trading slips and the FAA accepts blank tapes, a delayed explanation and no plausible reason for why the crew was distracted. Shameful and that is what is missing; shame. Why don t we just hand out participation trophies to the pilots? Hey thanks for showing up, too bad you killed everyone on board, but here s your trophy just for showing up. Will you be at the banquet? Nice uniforms! Oh my, has the Revolution started without us?
Maynard, you are correct and that s why it s hard for me to believe the crew was distracted by laptops and not sleeping. I suspect, but really do not know for sure, that the A320 autopilot was in NAV mode (navigation mode, probably using GPS guidance), tracking to the destination, and when MSP was passed, the autopilot reverted to HDG mode (heading mode)and maintained the heading it was flying. Without pilot input, the autopilot would not turn the aircraft around, although the GPS would continue to provide vacation rentals southern california guidance to MPS
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