George S. May Business Blog

Reason for NWA 188 overflight revealed

If you are already afraid to fly, this next one probably won’t make you feel any better.

From WSJ:

“This one isn’t about fatigue, it’s about complacency.

In some ways, the latest update from the National Transportation Safety Board about Northwest Airlines Flight 188 from San Diego to Minneapolis confirms the worst fears: The pilots just plain weren’t paying a lick of attention to flying the airplane.

The NTSB interviewed both pilots, both experienced aviators, who overflew MSP last week and said the captain and first officer say they had laptop computers out and were deep in discussion of a new crew scheduling system launched by Northwest’s parent, Delta Air Lines. The first officer was showing the captain how the new system worked, and neither were listening to radio transmissions or even glancing at airplane instruments or messages from company dispatchers.

“Both said they lost track of time,” the NTSB said in its statement.

Neither pilot was aware of the plane’s position, some 100 miles past their destination, until a flight attendant called and asked when they would land. “The captain said, at that point, he looked at his primary flight display for an ETA and realized that they had passed MSP. They made contact with ATC (air-traffic control) and were given vectors back to MSP,” the NTSB said in a statement.

Neither pilot said he was fatigued, and they’d had a 19-hour layover in San Diego before Flight 188, their first flight of the day. The NTSB noted that use of personal laptop computers in the cockpit is a violation of company policy.

The Airbus A320’s cockpit voice recorder captured only 30 minutes, including time on the ground, and the recording began when the plane was on final approach. The investigation will continue–the safety board said it is interviewing flight attendants and other company personnel.

There’s an old saying in aviation: “Flying can be hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” Automation can make flying a jet a boring task — set the autopilot and all you have to do is change radio frequencies as you cross the country.  Automation has made air travel safer, but complacency in the cockpit will lead to accidents.”

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