Flight scare pilots were on their laptops

Published on Monday 26 October 2009 23:27

TWO pilots have told investigators they were looking at schedules on laptops when their Airbus passenger jet overflew its destination by 150 miles.

The Northwest Airlines pilots – Richard Cole, the first officer, and Timothy Cheney, the captain – insisted in interviews conducted over the weekend by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that they did not fall asleep, the board said in a statement, released yesterday.

Instead, Mr Cole and Mr Cheney told investigators that they both had their laptops out while the first officer, who had more experience with scheduling, instructed the captain on monthly flight crew scheduling.

The pilots were out of communication with air traffic controllers and their airline for more than an hour and did not realise their mistake until contacted by a flight attendant, the board said. There had been speculation the pilots had fallen asleep during the cruise phase of their flight.

Air traffic controllers in Denver and Minneapolis repeatedly tried to raise the pilots of the San Diego-to-Minneapolis flight by radio, without success. Other pilots in the vicinity tried reaching the plane on other radio frequencies. Their airline tried contacting them using a radio text message that chimes.

Authorities became so alarmed that National Guard jets were readied for take-off at two locations and the White House Situation Room alerted senior White House officials.

"It's inexcusable," said former NTSB chairman Jim Hall. "I feel sorry for the individuals involved, but this was certainly not an innocuous event – this was a significant breach of aviation safety and aviation security."

Mr Cheney and Mr Cole are both experienced pilots, according to the NTSB.

Neither has ever had an accident, incident or violation.