Lost Northwest Pilots Were Trying Out New Software

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that two Northwest Airlines pilots who flew about 110 miles past their destination to the skies over Wisconsin as more than a dozen air-traffic controllers in three locations tried to get the plane's attention had taken out their personal laptops in the cockpit, a violation of airline policy, so the first officer could tutor the captain in a new scheduling system put in place by Delta Air Lines, which acquired Northwest last fall. 'Both said they lost track of time,' said an interim report from the National Transportation Safety Board countering theories in aviation circles that the two pilots might have fallen asleep or were arguing in the cockpit. 'Using laptops or engaging in activity unrelated to the pilots' command of the aircraft during flight,' said a statement from Delta Airlines, 'is strictly against the airline's flight deck policies and violations of that policy will result in termination.' Industry executives and analysts said the pilots' behavior was a striking lapse for such veteran airmen who have a total of 31,000 flying hours of experience between them. In the case of Flight 188, 'Neither pilot was aware of the airplane's position until a flight attendant called about five minutes before they were scheduled to land and asked what was their estimated time of arrival,' the interim report said."

Comments

This is news to me.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I knew vista takes forever to boot, and so I am not surprised it took the first officer some 20 minutes to start the tutoring session. Also the boot has cool graphics splash screen and I could imagine the pilots being engrossed and entranced by the splash screen. But it is news to me it will also freeze all electronics within vicinity. I know the vista WiFi setup tries really hard to find any possible router in the vicinity and blasts the surrounding space with all sorts of radiation hoping to get a positive response from a router.

But it is news to me, it can commandeer aircraft radios and navigational aids within vicinity and convert them into a giant Wi-Fi range extenders.

WTF?

[rts008]

They were raiding in WoW, I would imagine. ;-)

"Tutoring in the new scheduling software", my ass.

Re:WTF?

[Conchobair]

That explains the "brb, have to land a plane" comment in raid chat...

Oh, puhlease

[new death barbie]

They were SO engrossed they neglected to respond to repeated attempts at contact for OVER AN HOUR? They weren't learning a new scheduling system.

They were on a WoW raid, more like.

Re:I am surprised

[trudyscousin]

Needless to say I learned to backup more freaklently

The evolution of the English language is a fascinating thing.

Re:Luck not shot down

[SnarfQuest]

What's the signal for "Windows has crashed and I have to wait for it to reboot"?

Re:Luck not shot down

[muckracer]

> What's the signal for "Windows has crashed and I have to wait for it to
> reboot"?

You wave furiously with the blue card at the fighter pilot...

Re:pushed? not a big deal?

[Scrameustache]

I am an ex-IT engineer turned airline pilot (currently flying Airbus A320)

Dude, did you learn nothing from this story? Don't post to slashdot when you're flying!It'll get you in trouble! ;-)

Re:They were working, after all

[JD-1027]

Keep this in mind, all of you reading slashdot at work !

Good point. I really should land this plane sometime soon.

Re:Luck not shot down

[PRMan]

so far no US fighter has shot down a rouge airliner

Chartreuse and teal airliners, yes, but not rouge...