NWA 188
Ok, so major airlines this week are trying really hard to prove that regional pilots aren’t the only idiot pilots in the air. This story is about a Northwest flight that overflew MSP by 150 miles. Just one week after Delta 60.
Here’s what I say happened and of course, this is only a guess. Both pilots were sound asleep letting the plane fly itself (as the only flying they do is during take off and landing) and they woke up after over flying MSP. I’m guessing the FDR on this aircraft would only record the final 30 minutes of flight, in which case no one would know what was going on in the cockpit during the 78 minutes of silence because by the time they realized their mistake they had to fly more than 30 minutes to get back to MSP. Here’s how this will end. The 2 pilots will be suspended during the investigation. Maybe a few months. ALPA will get both of their jobs back, they’ll keep their seniority, and Delta will owe them back pay from months of suspension. Not that I’ve ever seen that before, it’s just a guess.
correction: i meant to say the cockpit voice recorder would only record the last 30 minutes of flight. not the flight data recorder.