Two pilots have told US investigators that they were going over schedules using their laptop computers in violation of company policy while their Airbus passenger jet overflew their Minneapolis, Minnesota, destination by 240km, the National Transportation Safety Board (NSTB) said on Monday.
The Northwest Airlines pilots — Richard Cole, the first officer, and Timothy Cheney, the captain — said in interviews conducted during the weekend that they were not fatigued and did not fall asleep, the board said in a statement.
Instead, Cole and Cheney told investigators that they both had their laptops out while the first officer, who had more experience with scheduling, instructed the captain on monthly flight crew scheduling.
The pilots were out of communication with air traffic controllers and their airline for more than an hour and didn’t realize their mistake until contacted by a flight attendant, the board said.
By then, Northwest Flight 188 with its 144 passengers and five crew members was over Wisconsin, continuing to cruise at 11,100m.
Many aviation safety experts said it was more plausible that the pilots fell asleep during the cruise phase of their flight last Wednesday night than that they became so focused on a conversation that they lost awareness of their surroundings for such a lengthy period of time.
Air traffic controllers in Denver and Minneapolis repeatedly tried without success to raise the pilots of the San Diego-to-Minneapolis flight by radio. Other pilots in the vicinity tried reaching the plane on other radio frequencies. Their airline tried contacting them using a radio text message that chimes.
Authorities became so alarmed that National Guard jets were readied for takeoff at two locations and the White House Situation Room alerted senior White House officials, who monitored Northwest Flight 188 with its 144 passengers and five crew members as the Airbus A320 flew across a broad swath of the mid-continent completely out of contact with anyone on the ground.
“It’s inexcusable,” former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said. “I feel sorry for the individuals involved, but this was certainly not an innocuous event — this was a significant breach of aviation safety and aviation security.”
The Delta pilots union said that at no time were the passengers, crew or aircraft in danger, and cautioned against a “rush to judgment.”
“I strongly encourage all parties not to reach a hasty conclusion,” Captain Lee Moak, chairman of the union, said in the statement on Monday. “We stand firmly behind the crew’s right to due process.”
Delta said in a statement that using laptops or engaging in activity unrelated to the pilots’ command of the aircraft during flight is strictly against the airline’s flight deck policies.
The airline said violations of that policy will result in termination.
There are no federal rules that specifically ban pilots’ use of laptops or other personal electronic devices as long as the plane is flying above 3,000m, said Diane Spitaliere, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman.
“I think it depends upon how it’s being used,” Spitaliere said.
Delta has suspended the two pilots pending an investigation into the incident.
The FAA is also investigating and has warned Cheney and Cole that their pilot licenses could be suspended or revoked.
Pilots’ schedules are tied to their seniority, which also determines the aircraft they fly. Those at the top of the list get first choice on vacations, the best routes and the bigger planes that they get paid more for flying.
Following Delta Air Lines’ acquisition of Northwest, an arbitration panel ruled that the pilot seniority lists at the two carriers should be integrated based on pilots’ status and aircraft category.
Cheney and Cole are both experienced pilots, according to the NTSB. Cheney, 53, was hired by Northwest in 1985 and has about 20,000 hours of flying time, about half of which was in the A320.
Cole, 54, had about 11,000 hours of flight time, including 5,000 hours in the A320.
Both pilots told the board they had never had an accident, incident or violation, the board said.
The pilots acknowledged that while they were engaged in working on their laptops, they weren’t paying attention to radio traffic, messages from their airline or their cockpit instruments, the board said.
That’s contrary to one of the fundamentals of commercial piloting, which is to keep attention focused on monitoring messages from controllers and watching flight displays in the cockpit.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in