Who realised flying airliners had become so boring?It turns out that the two pilots of the Northwest A320 that overflew Minneapolis St Paul were two old lags within sight of retirement who got talking about the age-old subject of the crew rostering system, pulled out their laptops on the flight deck to look at the software, and next thing they know the flight attendant is asking when they're going to land. They start actually flying the airplane again and realise Minneapolis is a long way behind them.
Captain 53, with 20,000 blameless hours, half of them in the A320 and 7,000 of them in command. First officer 54 with 11,000 similarily clean hours, 5,000 in the A320. What a way to end a career.
They're spared the full embarrasment of having the whole ghastly saga played back to them because the 30min CVR doesn't cover the period in question. Although most of the last half-hour is on the tape and may or may not be educational.
Below is the NTSB statement today after interviewing the pilots for five no doubt excruciating hours.
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, 2 pilots and 3 flight attendants.
Both pilots were interviewed separately by NTSB
investigators yesterday 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 5 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 Safety Board is interviewing the flight attendants and
other company personnel today. Air traffic control
communications have been obtained and are being analyzed.
Preliminary data from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR)
revealed the following:
* The CVR recording was 1/2 hour in length.
* The cockpit area microphone channel was not working
during this recording. However, the crew's headset
microphones recorded their conversations.
* The CVR recording began during final approach, and
continued while the aircraft was at the gate.
* During the hours immediately following the incident
flight, routine aircraft maintenance provided power to
the CVR for a few minutes on several occasions, likely
recording over several minutes of the flight.
The FDR captured the entire flight which contained several
hundred aircraft parameters including the portion of flight
where there was no radio communication from the flight
crew. Investigators are examining the recorded parameters
to see if any information regarding crew activity during the
portion of flight where radio contact was lost can be
obtained.
The Safety Board's investigation continues.
on October 27, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply
I find the following horrifying:
"Both pilots said there are no procedures for the flight attendants to check on the pilots during flight"
When I was crew the company standard was check on the flight deck every 20 minutes. Other crew I have spoken with say that they check the flight deck from 20 minutes to every hour depending on length of the flight.
The FA’s and passengers all know the flight time and also the arrival time, I’m surprised that the error wasn’t rectified sooner. I appreciate crew are extremely busy with the in-flight service, but 30 seconds could have saved all the inconvenience that has now been caused to the crew and NTSB investigators.
on October 28, 2009 11:41 AM | Reply
Is the root of the problem not the fact that Airbus has gone for side-sticks which practically invites pilots to whip out a laptop or two and use them. Having a yoke taking up space in front of you dissuades you from using a laptop.
I agree with your sentiments about two clean old-hands- what a way to end it all.
on November 1, 2009 12:09 PM | Reply
The history is repeated...
Remember the Northwest DC10 starting its descent to Brussels instead of Frankfurt back in the eighties ?
My experience :33 years of flying, up to Captain on the B747-400 , including 13 in the US where cockpit distraction is common because of poor discipline, relatively easy environemnet, same language, same culture and rather light indoctrination from companies... Money...money..money...has shown that compared to the rest of the world where the environement is less friendly, multicultures in a cockpit , languages barriers ( different problems now ) and less social protection for employees, is conducive to better ( Not always though ) discipline compared to the US...