Friday, October 23, 2009
Longer than the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
When you are flying a commercial plane there are many wonderful electronic gadgets to help you along the way. Sadly there is none that announce to the pilots, 'Hey guys, we're here!'at the end of the trip.
The pilots of a Northwest Airlines jet failed to make radio contact with ground controllers for more than an hour and overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles before discovering the mistake and turning around.Ground control to Major Tom?
The plane landed safely Wednesday evening, and no one was hurt. But federal officials on Thursday began investigating whether pilot fatigue was a factor.
Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the agency does not know if the crew fell asleep, calling that idea "speculative."
Flight 188, an Airbus A320, was flying from San Diego to Minneapolis with 144 passengers and five crew. The pilots dropped out of radio contact with controllers just before 7 p.m. CDT, when they were at 37,000 feet.
The jet flew over the airport just before 8 p.m. and overshot it before communications were re-established at 8:14 p.m., the NTSB said.
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