Northwest Airline Pilots miss Airport by 150 miles? Whats up with this

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   Michael Willisposted 15 years ago

   Amazing story I heard on ABC news this evening. Plane missing and finally found. Pilots claim in heated discussion on company policy. (yeah right) Tower controllers could not get in contact with pilots.
   
   Asleep? More likely. Makes me worry more about flying. There needs to be more safety guideline in place. Have read time after time about pilots complaining about not getting enough rest between flights.
   
   http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/northwest- … d=8892976#

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      dutchman1951posted 15 years agoin reply to this

      dam lucky if you ask me, Auto Pilots depending on their maintence, calibration and up-keep are sometimes un-reliable, they really escaped a near disaster. Dam stupid move IMO

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      Auntie Mposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I have a cousin who works for the FAA and you really don't want to know all there is to keeping air travel safe. More money and man hours would be required and tax payers are strung out as it is. The industry plays the odds. They crunch the numbers and do what they can to keep the most safe. And believe me there are  regulations that keep tight tabs on the airline industry. Again it is costly. And I do not mean to imply that anyones life is expendable.
      Unfortunately I believe that the requirements to pilot an airline plane are not as strict as they once were. I remember when Peoples Express starter. Only military trained pilots were hired and we know what training the pilot had who safely landed that jet into the Hudson.
      I agree that the pilots on the jet that overpassed the airport were definately preoccupied.

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      AviationGrindposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      They have alot of fatigue these days.  There is the constant expectation by the airlines to do way more for way less sleep due to the downturn in the economy.  This makes for increasingly dangerous situations for both passengers and crew.
      Also the post 9-11 procedures allow limited to no contact with the flight attendants during flight for security reasons to keeping the cockpit door secured during flight.
      
      This is also not good for the pilots since we are not able to check on them as often any longer to see if they need coffee, are awake or need someone to chat with them to stay alert. During all nite red eye flights when I flew purser lead we checked on them every 20 mins with coffee and conversation to ensure they were awake.  This is no longer the case and with the new heavy schedules and reduced sleep is going to spell a disaster in just a matter of time. Hopefully, the FAA and DOT will address these issues before we lose an entire aircraft due to pilot fatigue.

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   cosetteposted 15 years ago

   wow.
   
   that is pretty amazing.
   
   i have heard that things are so bad some pilots only make TEN DOLLARS AN HOUR...can you believe that?
   
   incredible

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   lrohnerposted 15 years ago

   Yeah. Evidently they were "distracted". Sheesh!

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   A Texanposted 15 years ago

   Maybe they should let um drink while flying, always kept me up!

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      Michael Willisposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      lol, then who knows where they would land.

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         Auntie Mposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         That is really funny!!!
         
         And wherever you land, you'll be smiling and won't feel a thing!!! lol

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   cosetteposted 15 years ago

   the scary part is, some do drink just before taking off...

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   sannyasinmanposted 15 years ago

   Its all to do with 2012 - the Earth's magnetic north has shifted. Scary stuff . .

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      manlypoetrymanposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      

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      arvinoposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, tell me abouit it..Its scary stuff.

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   NGRIA Bassettposted 15 years ago

   See, there is terrorism that kept us out of the cockpit so the pilots can surf all the way to space with the passengers in tow!We must have a pilot watch dog group on board every flight!!!!

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   TimTurnerposted 15 years ago

   Apparently, they were on the laptops.
   
   But they failed to answer any calls for over an hour which is strictly against FAA rules.  They said they were concentrating on flight schedules so hard that they didn't hear any calls coming in.
   
   Hmmm...very odd.  They are either lying to cover up the fact that they fell asleep or they were working on something and purposely didn't hear the calls.
   
   Your entire job as a pilot is to use communication devices and radar to guide you.  Especially when the government is trying to get a hold of you!  haha

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   arvinoposted 15 years ago

   I think this is the first real propfecy that people are taking as fact today. Even though there are many more prophecies that has already predicted the time of the end.

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    Song-Birdposted 15 years ago

    Very scary!  It doesn't make me feel very good about flying.

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    frequentflyerposted 14 years ago

    I have something to say, A lot of people I have heard attacked Northwest about this incident. It was the pilots fault and yes Northwest hired them but. This could happen to any airline and Northwest has strict rules for pilots about what they do or talk about in the cockpit.

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       Michael Willisposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       You are right, it was the Pilots, not the Airline.  I bet this did get the attention of a lot of Airlines though and hopefully they tightened up procedures while flying.

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          frequentflyerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          I do hope this as well, but I will add (i just thought of this) that pilots should be much more responsible and treat flying and those who are flying amongst them, with a VERY high level of safety. They should never think of flying as a walk in the park. I wanted to say that because I have noticed that some pilots although how ever much training they get they still fail to treat flying with a high level of safety.

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    natkenposted 14 years ago

    WOOOOOW THING LIKE THAT MAKE YOU SCARED OF FLYING

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       NathanSyckelposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Flying is super-safe man. Just because these pilots made some errors doesn't mean you should be afraid of flying.

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