Saturday, October 24, 2009

Overshot

What an odd story.

The first officer of the Northwest Airlines jet that missed its destination by 150 miles says there was no disagreement in the cockpit, neither he nor the captain was napping and the passengers were never in any danger.

But in an interview with The Associated Press two days after he and a colleague blew past their destination as air traffic controllers tried frantically to reach them, pilot Richard Cole would not say just what it was that led to them to forget to land Flight 188.

“We were not asleep; we were not having an argument; we were not having a fight,” Cole told the AP.

Air traffic controllers and pilots tried for more than an hour Wednesday night to contact Cole and the flight’s captain, Timothy B. Cheney, of Gig Harbor, Wash., using radio, cell phone and data messages. On the ground, concerned officials alerted National Guard jets to prepare to chase the airliner from two locations, though none of the military planes left the runway.

(9) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1206 hrs
Off-Duty

  1. ““We were not asleep; we were not having an argument; we were not having a fight,” Cole told the AP”.
    Ok, then maybe they are inept?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 24, 2009 at 1457 hrs


  2. Mile High Club anyone?
    Just saying…...

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 24, 2009 at 1514 hrs


  3. When are our legislators going to take the right step and ban texting while piloting???  OMG think of the children!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 24, 2009 at 1713 hrs


  4. As a pilot myself this seems very odd. You are always supposed to be “ahead of the airplane.” In other words - you are always preparing for the next thing you need to do. Whether it is checking in with control, or lowering the flaps.

    Obviously SOMETHING happened in the cockpit that shouldn’t have happened.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 25, 2009 at 0836 hrs


  5. “The NTSB recommended a decade ago that airlines be required to have two-hour cockpit voice recorders.”

    Let me guess. Conservatives argued that $19.95 for the equipment was an unbearable burden on the airline business and nothing ever happened.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 25, 2009 at 0914 hrs


  6. Oh stop with the conservative bashing!

    Again, you’re GUESSING!

    And again, you’re probably WRONG!

    Don’t buy any lottery tickets, bud.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 25, 2009 at 1539 hrs


  7. Oh sorry, did I p—- you off? The “guess” was a joke, and something tells me it was right on. I was, of course, referring to the people who won’t pay a few bucks more a month for decent schools, with the consequence that anything with a working brain might soon migrate away from here.
    As to bashing, the day you so-called conservatives stop the by-and-large bashing of anyone with any idea of what to do to make things a little better, I’ll shut up as well.
    Until then, B&S can go Maziarkan and moderate away the dissenters.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 25, 2009 at 1951 hrs


  8. So the plane overshot the airport because of the tax levy in West Bend ? If comment #7 is the model of a perfect working brain you can understand why we want better stewards in charge of tax dollars.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 26, 2009 at 0938 hrs


  9. No, genius, it wasn’t a cause and effect, it was intended as a creative and maybe darkly humorous comparison. I’m gone…

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 26, 2009 at 1106 hrs


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