Wayward Pilots: We Were Working on Laptops

Pilots of Plane that Overshot Airport by 150 Miles Used Computers in Cockpit; Violation May Cost Them Their Jobs, Licenses

(CBS/AP)  Last updated 6:30 p.m. Eastern

Two Northwest Airlines pilots have told federal investigators that they were going over schedules using their laptop computers in violation of company policy while their plane overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.

The pilots - Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., the first officer, and Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., the captain - said in interviews conducted over the weekend that they were not fatigued and didn't fall asleep, the board said in a statement.

Instead, Cole and 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 didn't realize their mistake until contacted by a flight attendant, the board said.

Many aviation safety experts had said it was more plausible that the pilots had fallen asleep during the cruise phase of their flight last Wednesday night than that they had become so focused on a conversation that they lost awareness of their surroundings for such a lengthy period of time.. Air traffic controllers in Denver and Minneapolis repeatedly tried without success to raise the pilots of the San Diego-to-Minneapolis flight by radio. 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 takeoff at two locations and the White House Situation Room alerted senior White House officials, who monitored Northwest Flight 188 with its 144 passengers and five crew members as the Airbus A320 flew across a broad swath of the mid-continent completely out of contact with anyone on the ground.

The cockpit voice recorder will not settle the issue. There's nothing on the tape to challenge the pilots stories and nothing to indicate if they were asleep. But, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, they were clearly inattentive and aviation sources say that will likely cost them their jobs and pilots licenses.

"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."

The co-pilot called it an "innocuous" mistake. But lost pilots have caused some of aviation's worst events. Orr reports that 159 people died in 1995 when an experienced captain of an American Airlines 757 lost his way and hit a mountain near Cali, Colombia.

Cheney and Cole are both experienced pilots, according to the NTSB. Cheney, 53, was hired by Northwest in 1985 and has about 20,000 hours of flying time, about half of which was in the A320. Cole had about 11,000 hours of flight time, including 5,000 hours on the A320.

Both pilots told the board they had never had an accident, incident or violation, the board said.

The pilots acknowledged that while they were engaged in working on their laptops they weren't paying attention to radio traffic, messages from their airline or their cockpit instruments, the board said. That's contrary to one of the fundamentals of commercial piloting, which is to keep attention focused on monitoring messages from controllers and watching flight displays in the cockpit.

"It is unsettling when you see experienced pilots who were not professional in flying this flight," said Kitty Higgins, a former NTSB board member. "This is clearly a wakeup call for everybody."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called the incident "the ultimate case of distracted driving, only this time it was distracted flying."

The Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents major U.S. airlines, expects pilots to comply with federal regulations and airline policies, but hasn't taken a position on the use of electronic devices by pilots while in the cockpit, ATA spokeswoman Elizabeth Merida said.

Pilot schedules are tied to their seniority, which also determines the aircraft they fly and layoff protection. Those at the top of the list get first choice on vacations, the best routes and the bigger planes that they get paid more for flying.

Following Delta Air Lines' acquisition of Northwest last October, an arbitration panel ruled that the pilot seniority lists at the two carriers should be integrated based on pilots' status and aircraft category.

The panel ruled that pilots from one carrier would not, for a period of time, be able to fly certain planes the other carrier brought to the combination.

The panel's decision affected the roughly 12,000 pilots of Delta and Northwest.

[imnho]

ai guess they decided to sitdown and see wgat poped up on there laptops.

[imnho]

If they want to play with each others laptops they should not be allowed to fly airplanes. They can get there ups and downs on the ground and not flying around.

[mau57]

I guess they don't call it the "cockpit" for nothing. They should change Northwest Airlines to Brokeback Mountain Airlines. They KNOW they were gettin' it on. That's the only rational explanation for not responding to that many attempts by others. Hot man sex will do that to you. LOL.

[TheEnergyDoctor]

I heard on of the pilots' wives called the airport to remind him that
he forgot his laptop home and left a message. Hmmmmmmm.

They said they were on their "lap-tops" they did'nt mention anything about computers. Hmmmmm.

[thgdriver]

All they had to do was say they remember a bright light, then taken into a time warp of some kind and don't remember time passing or anything else for that matter. Seems more believable then their latest rendition of what took place. LMAO!!

[x0mrgrinch0x]

i smell facebook

[thgdriver]

I thought the three stooges were dead! Seems they are alive and well paid airline pilots now.

[linderhof6]

They just lost their licenses to fly. It has been reported that the flight cockpit voice recorder only recorded the latest 30 minutes of cockpit activity. Don't you think that they purposely flew the extra time to make sure that the recorder would "over-write" whatever happened? This seems like a blatant coverup on their parts. Certainly the laptops can be scrutinized to see what they were doing, if anything during the initial period where they overshot their destination.

[toldyouso21]

I doubt they were working on schedules either. Probably, they had the doors locked from the inside and the two of them were engaged in some man love and lost track of the time..... LMAO If they think anyone is going to buy the ol' engrossed in the lap top lie--then they must really be stupid. Or desperate. Or both.

[TheEnergyDoctor]

Up there, the Pilots are Gods, they have lives in the palm of their hands. It does'nt matter what the excuses are, they are ultimately responsible. No CEO, no TSA, no FTAA, nothing/no one controls that situation up there but the Pilots. All Hell should fall on them.

If i'm a passenger up there I dont want laurel & hardy as my pilots,
"As the navigator of this plane, I have the right to know where we are". You would be amazed how avoidable errors like this affect ticket prices. You might laugh now, but WE will pay later.

[winslowe1]

Any more restrictions and the only thing a pilot will be able to do is fly the plane.

[bytheway59]

all that needs to be done is review the lap tops' activity.

[toldyouso21]

The "laptops" that should be reviewed is an invasion of privacy.After the flight, their undies should have been checked for each others DNA due to excess leakage.

[dontknowitall]

Sounds as though they are taking the same stand as Casey Anthony and Misty *******. Lie lie lie.

[missme4]

I thought they said they were arguing.

[bubbadubba]

If I was CEO of NWA, this would be my response " Oh, that answers the question then. By the way, you're fired."

[imprisoncheney]

And the airlines wonder why people are reluctant to fly . . . scheeeeschh!

It would be nice if the public had a viable alternative to flying -- like high speed bullet trains between major cities, etc.

The crew should just admit they fell asleep and why they did so -- working 2-3 different jobs to make ends meet, etc., whateverrrrr.

Sorry, but the "working on laptops" excuse is even worse than the arguing about company policy one that was first put out there. They can't do 2 things at once? -- fly the plane AND work on a computer?????

[dblbar1]

At first they said they were "in a heated exchange" and now the story changes to "working on laptops"............my arse, they were SLEEPING.......might as well admit it, although it might be interesting to see how many more times the story changes.....BUSTED!

Glad I didn't happen to be on that flight.......GEEZ......

[dakotaclark]

Hmmm...

This is becoming more and more strange.

What if the pilot and co-pilot are bi-sexual? Could it be that they really were working on their "laptops" in the cockpit?

This is a stay-tuned situation.

[DMDubey76]

I totally thought the same thing. "Using our laptops" sounds like a cover up for something. Evading the question only leads to more chatter - something is being hidden between these two.

[gmw7777]

These so-called pilots exposed everyone on the plane to imminent danger. They ignored the air traffic controllers. Both should be fired, lose their licenses to fly and brought up on criminal charges of gross negligence while on duty. In 1974, the pilots were discussing Nixon's pardon and crashed the plane. 72 people died according to the news report.

This is yet another example of employees "visiting" with each other rather than paying attention to the job they are paid to do. It happens in surgery, supermarkets, department stores, construction sites, etc. You are not paid to play on the job--you are paid to do the work. Flying a commercial airliner and not paying attention?! Throw the book at 'em!

[bobnjersey]

[This is yet another example of employees "visiting" with each other rather than paying attention to the job they are paid to do. It happens in surgery, supermarkets, department stores, construction sites, etc. You are not paid to play on the job--you are paid to do the work. Flying a commercial airliner and not paying attention?! Throw the book at 'em! ]

humans are not machines ... they are human ... and as such come with all the imperfections, emotions, and shortcomings that are well known about having humans doing repetive, boring, and mundane tasks.

instead of 'throwing the book at them' ... and then doing it again and again as each new instance occurs in the future ... a more important question should be why were they able to make these mistakes without them being detected/prevented/mitigated?

but maybe claiming these two individuals must be homosexuals ... or they should be perfect ... or they shouldn't be looking at porn will be a faster path to better safety in the cockpit.

whatever their failure ... it was allowed to occur by the absence of policy to prevent it. does anyone care about that?

[wheresmycountry]

At this point it doesn't matter if they say they were blowing each other, they're not going to be flying for Northwest any more. Once the fighter jets were armed and running, it really didn't matter.