The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Oct. 27 revoked the licenses of the two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles.
The two wrong-way pilots were previously suspended from flying for Delta Air Lines through completion of various investigations, said a Delta spokesman. “We are cooperating with the FAA and the NTSB in their investigation as well as conducting our own internal investigation,” the airline added.
Northwest Flight 188. an Airbus A-320 (NO3274), en route from San Diego, CA with 144 passengers and a crew of five, passed over its destination of Minneapolis, MN at 37,000 feet just before 9 p.m. EDT Oct. 21. It eventually circled back and landed safely in Minneapolis.
Air traffic controllers in Denver and Minneapolis tried to raise the crew without success.
The Air National Guard had put fighter jets on alert at two locations, but did not intercept the errant airliner in the end.
In grounding the two veteran airline pilots, the FAA said “the pilots were out of contact with air traffic controllers for an extended period of time and told federal investigators that they were distracted by a conversation. Air traffic controllers and airline officials repeatedly tried to reach them through radio and data contact, without success.
“The emergency revocations cite violations of a number of Federal Aviation Regulations. Those include failing to comply with air traffic control instructions and clearances and operating carelessly and recklessly.
“The revocations are effective immediately. The pilots have 10 days to appeal the emergency revocations to the National Transportation Safety Board. The FAA written statement said.
Delta, in a statement Oct. 26, hinted strongly that the lapse could cost both men their jobs. “Using laptops or engaging in activity unrelated to the pilots’ command of the aircraft during flight,” the statement said, “is strictly against the airline’s flight deck policies and violations of that policy will result in termination.”
Delta’s statement followed the NTSB’s release of preliminary findings on the embarrassing incident.
The NTSB stated that the pilots said in interviews that “there was a concentrated period of discussion where they did not monitor the airplane or calls from ATC even though both stated they heard conversation on the radio … neither pilot noticed messages that were sent by company dispatchers … both said they lost track of time … (and) each pilot accessed and used his personal laptop computer while they discussed the airline crew flight scheduling procedure.”
Here’s the NTSB statement:
NTSB ISSUES UPDATE ON ITS INVESTIGATION OF FLIGHT 188 THAT
OVERFLEW INTENDED MINNEAPOLIS AIRPORT
In its continuing investigation of an Airbus A320 that overflew the Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain Airport (MSP), the National Transportation Safety Board has developed the following factual information:
On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at 5:56 pm mountain daylight time, an Airbus A320, operating as Northwest Airlines (NWA) flight 188, became a NORDO (no radio communications) flight at 37,000 feet. The flight was operating as a Part 121 flight from San Diego International Airport, San Diego, California (SAN) to MSP with 144 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants.
Both pilots were interviewed separately by NTSB investigators in Minnesota.
The following is an overview of the interviews:
- The first officer and the captain were interviewed for over 5 hours combined.
- The Captain, 53 years old, was hired in 1985. His total flight time is about 20,000 hours, about 10,000 hours of A-320 time of which about 7,000 was as pilot in command.
- The First Officer, 54 years old, was hired in 1997. His total flight time is about 11,000 hours, and has about 5,000 hours on the A-320.
- Both pilots said they had never had an accident, incident or violation.
- Neither pilot reported any ongoing medical conditions.
- Both pilots stated that they were not fatigued. They were both commuters, but they had a 19-hour layover in San Diego just prior to the incident flight. Both said they did not fall asleep or doze during the flight.
- Both said there was no heated argument.
- Both stated there was a distraction in the cockpit. The pilots said there was a concentrated period of discussion where they did not monitor the airplane or calls from ATC even though both stated they heard conversation on the radio. Also, neither pilot noticed messages that were sent by company dispatchers. They were discussing the new monthly crew flight scheduling system that was now in place as a result of the merger. The discussion began at cruise altitude.
- Both said they lost track of time.
- Each pilot accessed and used his personal laptop computer while they discussed the airline crew flight scheduling procedure. The first officer, who was more familiar with the procedure was providing instruction to the captain. The use of personal computers on the flight deck is prohibited by company policy.
- Neither pilot was aware of the airplane’s position until a flight attendant called about five minutes before they were scheduled to land and asked what was their estimated time of arrival (ETA). The captain said, at that point, he looked at his primary flight display for an ETA and realized that they had passed MSP. They made contact with ATC and were given vectors back to MSP.
- At cruise altitude – the pilots stated they were using cockpit speakers to listen to radio communications, not their headsets.
- When asked by ATC what the problem was, they replied “just cockpit distraction” and “dealing with company issues”.
- Both pilots said there are no procedures for the flight attendants to check on the pilots during flight.
The investigation continues……