Airport Overshoot Prompts Investigation
October 22, 2009 by Mark Ellis
Filed under Business
A variety of groups have come together recently to try to do something about the fact that many pilots and flight attendants are worked so hard that they hardly have enough time to sleep, resulting in poorer job performance. This problem came to a head on Wednesday night when a Northwest Airlines flight ended up overshooting the airport by 150 miles because of the possibility that the pilot nodded off.
Air traffic controllers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport lost contact with the Airbus A320 for more than an hour, the time period in which it is suspected that the pilot fell asleep in the cockpit and had the plane on autopilot. The plane eventually landed safely and without any injuries to the 147 passengers, albeit much later than expected.
Upon the landing of the plane, the FBI and airport police interviewed the pilots. According to the pilots, the source of the airport overshoot was the fact that the pilots got into a heated debate over airline policy and were unable to devote their attention to the flying of the plane. However, the timing of the incident, which comes as the FAA attempts to change the rules that determine how long pilots can fly, is curious.
Image: Flickr
