An inquiry has begun after a US plane heading from San Diego to Minneapolis missed the airport it was meant to land at by 150 miles (240km). Contact with the Northwest Airlines plane was lost for an hour as it flew at 37,000ft, sparking hijack fears. The crew said they had been distracted by a “heated discussion” but officials will check if they had fallen asleep.
Flight 188, carrying 147 passengers, landed safely at Minneapolis after contact was resumed. A statement released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said: “The crew stated they were in a heated discussion over airline policy and lost situational awareness.” Board spokesman Keith Holloway told the Associated Press news agency that reports that the pilots may have fallen asleep were “speculative” but the investigation would look at “fatigue issues”.
The plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been taken from the plane and are being sent to the board’s laboratory in Washington, DC. The plane left San Diego at 1500 local time (2200 GMT) for what would normally be a three-hour journey. Air traffic controllers lost radio contact with the plane approximately an hour before it was due to reach its destination of Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain Airport. The plane missed its intended stop and continued on for a further 16 minutes before the airline managed to speak to the pilots.
This is at least the fourth incident of this type in as many years.
Could you explain the redundant (read: grammatically incorrect) apostrophe in “ZZZZZZZZ’s”?
Sex in the cockpit? With who? Each other? The cockpit door is locked and opened until the plane has landed. If both pilots died, no one would even know, nor could anyone else even land the plane.
#21: “Could you explain the redundant (read: grammatically incorrect) apostrophe in “ZZZZZZZZ’s”?” — adnium
Although the use of an apostrophe in “ZZZZZZZZ’s” is grammatically incorrect, it is technically not redundant. (Here’s a link to a good explanation on what I’m talking about)
redundant = superfluous, verbose, or tautological ≠ inherently incorrect
But then again… “ZZZZZZZZ’s” should probably be written “Z’s” or “Zs” to avoid the apostrophe issue entirely.
Of course airline executives would never take a pay cut. The pilots must take one first and then run double shifts to cover their finances.
America sucks.
This is an incident that makes for great conspiracy theory materials. LOL. That aside, I think being a pilot is a job that requires being constantly alert and fresh. I thought this video has got some interesting points about napping and how that can work out: http://www.newsy.com/videos/mid_air_mistake_sparks_debate_on_pilot_naps
FAA just revoked their licenses.
http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569867,00.html