I’ve written about my fear of flying previously. After a lot of thought (and an appointment with a psychologist,) I determined that most of it is a) I hate the bumpy stuff, and b) I don’t like the fact that I have no idea what’s going on up front. In other words, what’s the pilot doing?
The following does not help matters. At all.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125623517851801783.html?mod=igoogle_wsj_gadgv1&
Federal officials are working to sort out whether pilots of a Northwest Airlines flight dozed off or were simply distracted Wednesday night when they fell out of contact with air-traffic controllers for more than an hour and overshot their destination by 150 miles.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, among other things, whether the two pilots fell asleep at the controls. The pair told law-enforcement officials who interviewed them upon landing in Minneapolis — and apparently told fellow pilots later — that they had been engaged in a “heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness,” according to the NTSB.
Whatever the reason, the plane may have flown out of range of one air-traffic-control center and failed to take steps to get back on course and resume radio contact with controllers, according to industry and government officials close to the situation.
During the 78-minute radio silence, controllers became so concerned about the fate of the 149 people aboard that they asked pilots of other aircraft in the vicinity to see if they could rouse the Northwest crew, according to industry and government officials. When that failed, the Federal Aviation Administration and military official began to consider having fighter jets scrambled to intercept the twin-jet Airbus A320, these officials said.
When an aircraft fails to respond for such a long time, it is routine procedure to send fighters to try to determine the problem.
[churchlady] Well, isn’t that special? [/churchlady] According to additional information I read this morning, the pilots involved were allegedly having a heated discussion about airline policy, and lost “situational awareness”. Nice to know that those at the controls of a multi-million dollar airliner carrying 149 people weren’t paying attention to what they were doing. Even better, it’s the second time this week something similar has happened.
This brings even more discussion about pilot workload and compensation, which should be happening sooner than later. For those of us who have a hard time flying under the best of circumstances, it’s one more thing to worry about.
-S
