This past week, one of the bigger stories (nationally and locally) concerned the Northwest pilots who said they were using their personal laptops in the cockpit and as a result overshot their destination, Minneapolis, by 150 miles because they were distracted. The FAA revoked the license of the pilots, Captain Timothy B. Cheney and First Officer Richard I. Cole in a letter which stated that they had endangered the public by flying an hour and half without contacting controllers "while you were on a frolic of your own."
I was talking to an acquaintance who is responsible for controlling the airspace over a large Marine Corps Base in Southern California and he reminded me of something I (and a lot of media) overlooked in this story. The errant plane passed over the Minneapolis airport at 37,000 feet, most likely on autopilot. His opinion: they were asleep.
The funny thing is had they said they were asleep, both pilots would probably still have their licenses because they could blame it on overtaxing work schedules. The pilot’s union would have come to their defense and they probably would have been suspended, but not fired. But because they said they were on their computers for an hour and a half on a three hour, 45 minute flight, they were both fired and lost their licenses.
I wonder why, when they were going through the possible excuses they could use, Cheney and Cole thought saying they on the computer was okay when any one who has ever flown knows using the wi-fi on their laptops is not allowed. I guess they thought the rules wouldn’t apply to them. I’m glad the FAA reminded them they do.
