Take for instance two, now instantcelebrity, pilots from Northwest Airlines who managed to miss their domestic US destination by just a little bit…like 240km! After repeated and frantic attempts by air traffic controllers, as well as other aircraft failed to contact the pilots after an hour of trying, worried officials scrambled National Guard fighter jets to intercept Flight 188 which was happily zipping along at 37,000 feet, thinking they might have another 9-11 on their hands.
Luckily the pilots ‘woke up’ before the jets took off, thus averting a really bad day for unlucky passengers who could have had the misfortune of being shot out of the sky. The pilots eventually turned their Airbus A-320 around and landed safely with their 147 passengers and were given breathaliser tests which they both passed.
The pilots, who have more than 31,000 hours of flying experience between them have emphatically denied they were asleep, saying instead they were on their laptops caught up in a discussion regarding a new crew scheduling system being instituted at Northwest, which was acquired by Delta last fall. In short they said they, “lost situational awarenessâ€Â.
Hmmm, the Belly Achers must have a very short attention span compared to these two, because we frequently get into intense discussions over our esteemed company’s policies but we still maintain our situational awareness, even when we’re discussing over beers! Too bad their, by now, enhanced knowledge of the new crew scheduling system doesn’t matter anymore because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has revoked their licenses and NW said it was going to fire them for breaking company rules regarding laptop usage in the cockpit.
And while nobody – except the two pilots – will ever know for sure what happened because the cockpit recorder was an old model only capable of recording for 30 minutes, we don’t buy their explanation.
