Northwest Airlines Pilots Miss Airport by 150 Miles

**Cricket** · 10-23-2009, 05:26 AM

Northwest Airlines Pilots Miss Airport by 150 Miles
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/northwe...8892976&page=1

Please read the full story (and perhaps listen to the video) before responding.

Quote:

For one hour and 18 minutes, the pilots -- flying at 37,000 feet above sea level -- were radio silent as air traffic controllers at times tried to reach the cockpit, according to a news release from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Beyond the obvious story here, I have a very serious concern. The terrorist throughout the world must be laughing their tails off knowing that even after 9/11 it is still possible for a commercial plane to go this long without radio contact in the United States and not be surrounded by military planes. Have we already forgotten?

**Hades** · 10-23-2009, 06:37 AM

*checks what is 150 miles in KM's...* yeah they went quite far, I wonder if none of the passengers asked what is going on during the flight, they were supposed to have a scheduled arrival time that they obviously missed, and some of them probably lost their connection flights and had a good headache.

As for the tower contact, remember that there are about 50.000 plane landings a day only in the US (source: flightaware.com), and at peak hours there are a few thousand planes flying at the same time, it must be very difficult for ground controllers to be in direct contact with all of them 100% of the time.

**Cricket** · 10-23-2009, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hades

*checks what is 150 miles in KM's...* yeah they went quite far, I wonder if none of the passengers asked what is going on during the flight, they were supposed to have a scheduled arrival time that they obviously missed, and some of them probably lost their connection flights and had a good headache.

As for the tower contact, remember that there are about 50.000 plane landings a day only in the US (source: flightaware.com), and at peak hours there are a few thousand planes flying at the same time, it must be very difficult for ground controllers to be in direct contact with all of them 100% of the time.

Yes but the tower admits they could not reach them, and in fact had other planes in the area trying to contact them. My point is they KNEW the plane did not land.

Natural Elements · 10-23-2009, 09:20 AM

Man I cannot imagine what's happen. 2 pilotes and the crew did not notice that the flight went 150 miles too far and took more time?

This crew will never flight again, and the FAA should take away their licences.

The tower made also a mistake for not calling the US air force to check what was going on like Cricket said.

I hope authority and the airline company will learn from this and that will never happen again.