FAA Says No More Minesweeper Or Solitaire In Cockpit

If you like to pass the time playing minesweeper, or checking your Facebook updates while piloting a 900,000-pound aircraft 400 mph, you won't like the latest FAA decision. The agency has asked airlines to create policies to minimize cockpit distractions, including pilots' use of personal electronic devices. "There is no room for distraction when your job is to get people safely to their destinations," said DOT Secretary Ray LaHood. "The traveling public expects professional pilots to focus on flying and on safety at all times."

Comments

Re:They need something to do

[gstoddart]

When was the last time we had an airliner NOT get people safely to its destination based solely on a Pilot being distracted?

Well, ultimately they did arrive safely, but there were those guys who overshot an entire city last year because they weren't paying attention.

That might have something to do with trying to crack down on the number of possible distractions in the cockpit. I mean, getting immersed in some piece of software and not realizing you're a half hour late in your descent and that you've overshot by 150 miles or so -- that's not the kind of thing passengers want happening.

Re:They need something to do

[Thud457]

no, that's the SEC

Re:They need something to do

[gstoddart]

I love the over reaction to the "150 miles or so" how about you put that in perspective

Perspective? You want perspective? How about these tid-bits from the link I provided earlier ...

The crew of Northwest Flight 188 was out of radio contact with radio controllers for 77 minutes

and

When the flight attendant called him, Cheney said, he looked at an onboard display and saw no flight plan, then looked at a navigation display and and saw Duluth, Minnesota, to the left and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, ahead to the right.

This isn't "missing an exit because you're having a conversation with a passenger". This is ignoring the fact that your GPS is telling you to turn right, your wife is telling you that you've missed the exit, and ignoring the police car with his lights flashing indicating that the road is closed ahead.

Then, to top it all off ...

First Officer Cole told the safety board that after the pilots discovered their error, he noticed several messages on a display instructing the crew to "contact ATC [Air Traffic Control]." Cole said he then "inadvertently" pushed the "delete all" button, erasing all the dispatch messages.

Neither pilot could remember what happened to the cockpit paperwork, the report says. "Both stated they believed the Northwest chief pilot who met the aircraft may have taken possession of it," it says.

This isn't a little "oops" we're talking about here. This isn't getting slightly distracted. This is a prolonged period of not being in control of a friggin' aircraft, and then doing some really dodgy things afterward which essentially wipes out the whole audit trail the system is supposed to have. So, we don't even really know WTF they were doing.

You're trying to find plausible reasons why this shouldn't be such a big deal -- maybe you should read a little more about what happened. Because, the people who are more closely associated with this are using much harsher terms than you seem to think applies.