A lot of people are asking how laptops could've caused the crew of Northwest Flight 188 to overfly MSP? According to the NTSB, using laptops on the flight deck is strictly prohibited during flight, but even a quick glance at the tray table on each side of the Airbus A320 family flight deck shows how a laptop monitor could easily block the pilot's navigation display.
The tray table is available to both crew members because Airbus uses a sidestick controller rather than the center yoke found on Boeing, Embraer and Bombardier aircraft.
At NBAA 2008 (yes 2008), I was provided a tour of the Comlux A319 ACJ and unfortunately the audio on the video was largely garbled, so the video was never used. This afternoon, I went back and looked at one portion of the video that shows the arrangement of the flight deck tray table in relation to the navigation display. I added some new audio and some annotations on the video to show just how easily a laptop could block the displays, causing a major distraction to the crew. This is why laptops aren't allowed in flight!
Read the full text of the NTSB update on Northwest 188. Also, why was the ACARS off?
on October 26, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply
What in the heck ever happened to flying the airplane?
Leave it to Boeing to have omitted the fancy Laptop holder...by design :-)
Were they checking out the MSP nightlife? Were they ordering a Pizza? Hummmm Seeing who had the better PORNO?
At least they weren't texting and flying!
on October 26, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply
If discussing the workplace situation is
such a strong distraction to not notice
your environment any more having some
creature comfort or not is probably
not a core issue.
Remember the crashed in Buffalo Q400 crew
had an intensive discussion on the same topic.
Jon, finding cause in a plastic tray is
in this case more than a couple of miles
off target.
uwe
on October 26, 2009 11:26 PM | Reply
"Leave it to Boeing to have omitted the fancy Laptop holder...by design"
The marketing manager phrase is, "optimized the cockpit design to minimize unregulated interfacing with potentially distracting peripherals."
"At least they weren't texting and flying!"
At FL300+ that would be a remarkable accomplishment. Mobiles typically don't work above around 10,000 feet and 200 mph due to issues with handoffs and allocating towers.
I'd say at least they weren't playing Unreal Tournament and flying.
on October 27, 2009 4:42 AM | Reply
There are also a number of advantages to the tray: At least the pilots can eat at their controls, without interfering with them.
I'd say that the real problem is that modern day flying is so boring that pilots are actively looking for things to do up there. The trick is to allow them to do this without compromising their duties. Simply forbidding something is only going to help lawyers.
on October 27, 2009 4:46 AM | Reply
There are also a number of advantages to the tray: At least the pilots can eat at their controls, without interfering with them.
I'd say that the real problem is that modern day flying is so boring that pilots are actively looking for things to do up there. The trick is to allow them to do this without compromising their duties. Simply forbidding something is only going to help lawyers.
on October 27, 2009 5:17 AM | Reply
iamlucky13 - Not UT. Microsoft Flight Simulator :)
on October 27, 2009 7:23 AM | Reply
I think there's been a bit of a leap made in some of the comments here. I do not, for a second, think that you should get rid of the flight deck tray tables. In fact, I think they are a pretty amazing (often overlooked) innovation.
The question I had been getting was "how could they lose track of where they were?" Well, the simple answer, which I sought to point out with this post, was how easy it was to block those displays with a laptop, not suggest they shouldn't be used in flight.
Hope this clarifies.
Best,
Jon
on October 27, 2009 7:34 AM | Reply
What *I* take away from this is:
If your crewmate starts talking about the workplace situation, punch them out before it's too late ;-)
on October 27, 2009 9:45 AM | Reply
While Northwest/Delta MAY prohibit use of laptops by pilots during flight, there is no general prohibition by FAR. In fact, most of my manuals are on my laptop; however, the ONLY time I use [and am allowed to use] my laptop during flight is.... to read a flight manual.
on October 27, 2009 10:54 AM | Reply
Hi Jon,
you are pointing to the "how".
And being able to obstruct relevant features
of your workplace certainly needs thinking about.
But of higher interest imho is the "why".
Superficially fixing problems by obstructing
certain incarnations of "how" ( to stay with the
nomeclature) just increases pressure on the "why",
though it is a very popular feature in modern
lawyer driven societies.
uwe
on October 27, 2009 1:21 PM | Reply
I still don't understand how they could loose contact for over an hour, even if they were using laptops. It just doesn't make sense? Using a laptop doesn't keep one from hearing the headset, nor does having a conversation. Even if the laptop is blocking the screen directly in front of them, they should have at least noticed the time on the laptop and realized that it was time to decsend. There is still something to this story that the public is not being told.
on October 27, 2009 3:00 PM | Reply
I agree with many posts above, I do not think the tray table is a valid factor here.
No matter where you work, there will be distractions. If it's not the tray table, it could be other things...
Even if there were no tray table, the pilots could still slide their seats back and place the laptops on their laps.
on October 27, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply
If I were to guess, then this is the **first** time the flight crew have been caught using laptops in the cockpit, not the first time it's been used. I agree something else was going on.
on October 29, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply
Good Evening Jon,
Good to see you, albiet briefly, at NBAA. One of our colleagues forwarded the video of the pull-out table in the Airbus cockpit. That video says it all. But the problem is that the table is available, it's the misuse of it.
Makes me want to ask, "Is anybody flying the airplane anymore?" Pilots aren't pilots these days. More than ever, they're systems monitors, and apparently they're no better at monitoring the sytem than the system is of monitoring itself."