Two Northwest Airlines pilots told federal investigators that they were going over schedules using laptop computers in the cockpit, in clear violation of company policy while their plane missed landing at their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles, the National Transportation Safety Board said today. The two men were radioed for more than an hour when they were finally alerted by a flight attendant… just before the jets were due to take off in search of them.
According to authorities, Air traffic controllers in Denver and Minneapolis repeatedly tried without success to raise the pilots by radio.
According to MSNBC “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 the airliner carrying 144 passenger and five crew members as it flew across a broad swath of the mid-continent completely out of contact with anyone on the ground.”
The pilots — Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., the first officer, and Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., the captain — 🙂 well they are suspended and suffice it to say, betcha they are in some DEEEP hot water.
