Airport Overshoot Mystery Solved?

(CBS)  The Federal Aviation Administration now says the pilots of a Northwest Airlines flight that overflew its destination of Minneapolis in October had been tuned to the wrong radio frequency -- one in Canada, reports Rick Sallinger of CBS station KCNC in Denver.

The pilots, Capt. Timothy Cheney, 54, of Gig Harbor, Wash., and First Officer Richard Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore., are putting partial blame for the incident on air traffic controllers, saying in documents filed late last month with the National Transportation Safety Board that controllers didn't follow air traffic rules and practices.

Cheney and Cole are appealing the revocation of their licenses. They admit they were using laptops in the cockpit to discuss company policies as they failed to answer radio calls.

American air traffic controllers tried in vain to reach the Northwest flight for 77 minutes, Sallinger notes.

The final communication before the radio blackout was from the Denver air traffic control center.

FAA's Tapes and Transcripts for Northwest Flight 188

But when contact was finally resumed, the pilots turned up on a different frequency, speaking with controllers in Winnipeg, Canada.

"You reach down, you dial in, and perhaps you didn't turn the knob one more click and suddenly, you find yourself on a completely different frequency than the one you were assigned," aviation safety consultant Steve Cowell told CBS News.

But a spokesperson for the FAA told Sallinger, "We found this out afterwards, about Winnipeg. There was no way the controllers would know, and did know, how the pilots happened to come back up on that frequency."

CBS News Correspondent Nancy Cordes, who covers aviation, observes that, "Pilots have to switch frequencies all the time, so it's not that unusual that, from time-to-time, a pilot might switch to the wrong frequency. Still, after these pilots hadn't heard from anyone for about half-an-hour, they should have grown suspicious because, ordinarily, pilots flying over the continental U.S. don't go, say, ten-to-fifteen minutes without hearing from a controller."

Controllers in the U.S. were, says Cordes, "making educated guesses" when the pilots were unresponsive. "They tried to reach the pilots on their last known frequency, they tried to reach the pilots on the frequency they should have been on. There are dozens and dozens of frequencies. There's no way they would have known the pilots happened to be on this random Canadian frequency.

"But, at the same time, if the pilots had been monitoring their instruments, they would have known that they were approaching Minneapolis and that it was time to land. They don't need an air traffic controller to tell them that. And the fact that they overshot their destination without ever trying to descend indicates that, not only were they not monitoring their radios, but they weren't monitoring their instruments, as well."

[riptide213]

Revocation of commercial licenses is the only remedy.

Their shame cast a shadow upon and stirs up negative repercussions across an entire highly trained profession which prides itself on competence, skill, attention to detail, and safety.

Professional accountability and enforcement must mean something.

Level of gross complacency and incompetence perhaps arrogance highlighted by this single incident unambiguously puts to the test core integrity of the system both airline and government any way you cut it.

Professional aviators simply cannot afford to screw up this bad and expect or demand to remain in the profession. It tarnishes the entire group.

Cutting out the rare offending or embarrassing few proves to the public that professional majority are worthy of respect they truly deserve.

No room for clowns and rogues.

Aviation is appropriately regulated by stringent government accountability so enforcers cannot gamble their reputation on such flagrantly high risk employees being allowed to remain in any position to endanger the public or cause national defense alarm in the unfriendly skies again ? ever.

Who in their right mind would authorize, retain or hire these unsafe guys to fly any aircraft any where?

[tibu987]

They were rightfully fired for this serious breach of responsibility.
I would not want them piloting any flight I was on.
They should lose their appeal.

[DomSantos]

They fell asleep. Plain and simple.

[Sloughfoot]

I'm more inclined to believe it was a lap dance distraction then a lap top distraction.

[us_1776]

This was pilot error plain and simple. And they need to be sanctioned for that error. However, tell me there is anyone that has never made an error in the performance of the job. These pilots should be given whatever punishment and retraining as is appropriate and then restored to duty.

[PVperson2]

Any error I ever made on the job didn't endanger the lives of a plane full of passengers, the appropriate punishment is having their licenses revoked.

[bigmo47]

There was nothing that has been reported stating that the passengers were ever endangered. I think we have an infallibility complex and cannot seem to empathize with others making a mistake. These guys screwed up but I don't think they should have their careers taken away unless it is proven that they were asleep.

[justsane-2009]

it's the new american way...nothing is our fault.

[Turbidite]

Given the name Cheney one wonders if attention deficit disorder is hereditary. We're lucky he didn't try to attack Canada.

[djseavy]

The pilots can't seem to take any responsibility for their actions. Switching to the wrong freq might be plausible for a few minutes, but when there's radio silence after about 10 minutes, it's time to check it out. They simply weren't paying attention to their aircraft.

[novamba]

IF George Bush Hadn't screwed up this country, then those pilots would have never gotten distracted.

[lileoj]

I hate Bush too but this has nothing to do with Politics. It has too do with making a pilot do sceduling. And pilots not paying attention.

[PaGuy1960]

you're ignorant

[endurorob_5]

Maybe they intentionally switched to a wrong frequency so they could take a little nap.