A Northwest Airlines plane bound for Minneapolis overshot the airport by 150 miles on Wednesday.  The pilots had not been in contact with the air traffic controllers for over one hour and did not realize they had already passed the airport until they had flown an extra 150 miles.

All on board were safe and most passengers didn’t even realize the error.  The crew of the plane claims they were involved in a heated discussion about airline policy and became distracted causing them to miss the airport.  The Federal Aviation Administration is also speculating pilot fatigue may have played a part in the mishap.

Flight 188 from San Diego to Minneapolis was carrying 144 passengers and five crew members.

When the plane ceased communication with air traffic control, the FAA called Air National Guard fighter jets to be on standby as a precaution.  “After FAA re-established communications, we pulled off,” said Michael Kucharek, a North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman.

Passengers on the plane were not notified during the flight of the mistake, learning about it only when they were greeted by the police at the gate.  “Everybody got up to get their luggage and the plane was swarmed by police as we were getting our bags down from the overhead bins,” Andrea Allmon, who had been traveling from San Diego on business, said.

They were made to stay on the plane until the police had statements from the crew. Many echoed Allmon’s sentiments of horror upon learning the full story.  “When I do my job, I do my job,” she said. “These guys are supposed to be paying attention to the flight. The safety of the passengers should be first and foremost. (It’s) unbelievable to me that they weren’t paying attention. Just not paying attention.”

The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been sent to Washington D.C. for analysis by the National Transportation and Safety Board.  Their review and report will explain exactly what happened in the cockpit and determine if the pilots were telling the truth about their in flight argument.

Our Take

Flying today is scary enough with terrorist attacks and malfunctioning planes to worry about.  We should not have to worry about whether or not the pilots are paying attention.  As the passenger said, it is their job to pay attention the entire time. There are also two pilots so all is not dependent on one person. The fact that two people missed their arrival destination and had gone way off course makes it even more astounding.  It’s one thing for someone who works a desk job to zone out once in a while, but when pilots lose focus, people can quickly be hurt or killed.