Licences of Northwest Airlines pilots who were busy with their laptops in cockpit suspended

The licences of the two airline pilots have been suspended after the incident in which they not only overflew their destination – the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport – a week ago but also was out of contact with the air traffic control (ATC) for about 80 minutes in spite of repeated calls from the ATC tower.

Over one hour was lost while the two pilots were working on their laptop computers in the cockpit of the Airbus A320 aircraft of Northwest Airlines.

When air traffic controllers at last established contact with Flight 188, after almost 80 minutes without any radio contact whatsoever, the pilots dismissed the whole incident as “just cockpit distraction” and that they were “dealing with company issues,” investigators of the Unite States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

Air traffic controllers had attempted to contact the pilots as many as 13 times using different methods but failed, according to the NTSB.

The Airbus A320 plane, which had left San Diego, California, with 147 passengers plus crew members, landed safely at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, after having flown 160 kilometres on autopilot, at an altitude of 12,000 metres.

The pilots involved are veterans – Captain Timothy B. Cheney, 53, and First Officer Richard I. Cole, 54.

The initial investigation and interviews that the NTSB has had with the pilots found that it seemed the two pilots of the Airbus A320 plane “simply lost track of time” since they were using their personal laptops.

Neither of the pilots was tired since they have had a 19-hour layover. There was no argument or disagreement, either, but rather a “concentrated period of discussion where they did not monitor the aircraft or calls from air traffic control,” the NTSB explained.

However, the NTSB added that both Timothy B Cheney and Richard I Cole “have (or had) unblemished records” and that they have logged, between them, over 30,000 hours of flying.

The interview by the NTSB revealed that Timothy Cheney, who was hired in 1985, has 20,000 hours of flight time to his credit (about 10,000 of those in an Airbus A320 plane). Richard I Cole, who was hired in 1997, has flown a total of 11,000 (out of which, around 5,000 hours in the A320 aircraft).

Official of the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) described the behaviour of the two pilots as “negligent and careless” and said that they did violate “a series of aviation regulations” – including failing to respond to instructions from the air traffic control.

The incident took place on October 21, 2009, when Northwest Airlines Flight 188, with 144 passengers and 3 flight attendants, was headed for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.

The pilots Timothy Cheney and Richard Cole told the investigators of the National Transportation Safety Board that they were “busy discussing a new work-scheduling system.”

It was in April 2008 that the United Stats-based Delta Airlines bought Northwest Airlines, based in Eagan, Minnesota, the United States, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. The consolidation of the operations of the two carriers is still under way.

According to aviation experts, pilots of Northwest Airlines are still in the process of switching over to the “computer bidding and scheduling system” of Delta Air Lines.

The incident involving the Northwest Airlines Flight 188 had set off a security alert in the ‘Situation Room’ of White House.

Following such a long period of loss of contact with Flight 188, the Federal Aviation Administration requested the involvement of the US military “to track aircraft in unusual situations,” as has been the practice since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Accordingly, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) based in Denver, Colorado, sent fighter jets in search f the “missing” plane, suspecting a possible security threat.

Pilots of commercial flights are not allowed to lose contact with traffic controllers for an extended period of time. Besides, the Northwest Airlines forbids pilots from using laptop computers in the cockpit.