Stray jet's pilots were on laptops

          Last Wednesday, a commercial jetliner overshot its destination by approximately 150 miles. The safety board said that the Airbus A320 was flying at 37 000 feet over the Denver, Colorado, area at 5:56 p.m. when it made its last radio contact. Northwest flight 188 had left San Diego to travel to Minneapolis- St. Paul International Airport carrying 144 passengers, two flight pilots, and three flight attendants. The pilots blamed the overshooting of the plane on laptops. They said that they were using their laptops on the plane and lost track of time as well as their location. Delta airlines released a statement Monday that said, "Using laptops or engaging in activity unrelated to the pilots' command of the aircraft during flight is strictly against the airline's flight deck policies and violations of that policy will result in termination." One of the pilots, Pilot Timothy Cheney, 53, was hired in 1985 and has more than 20 000 hours of flight time. First Officer Richard Cole, 54, was hired in 1997 and had more than 11 000 hours of flight time. After finally landing at the airport, neither of the pilots reported anything wrong. The pilots had a 19 hour layover in San Diego, where they both said that they had not slept on the flight, but they did say that "there was a distraction ' in the cockpit. Neither of the pilots had any ongoing medical conditions on the flight. The pilots did add, however, that there was "a concentrated period of discussion where they did not monitor the airplane or calls" from air traffic control. They both said that they did hear discussion on the radio, as they claimed that they were busy discussing the airline crew flight scheduling procedure. An airline spokesperson said on Monday that the company has sent the passengers on the plane $500 travel vouchers to compensate for the inconvenience. The spokesperson also mentioned that the pilots have been suspended until the conclusions of investigations that are currently being performed.

          I think that this is a very interesting event. It seems to me that something definitely happened in the cockpit during the ride, because no pilot would lose track of time in a normal flight. There has to be more to this story than mentioned. I believe that the pilots were actually sleeping, not being amused by their laptops like they claim, because they didn't respond to calls by the control centre. Obviously even if they were paying attention to their laptops, they could still hear the radio calling them. As it says in the article, the pilots did claim that they heard the radio call, but my question is- why didn't they respond? This fact basically tells us that the pilots were asleep. There is one thing that is making my response very difficult. In the article it states that the main pilot has had his job for 24 years, with over 20 000 hours of flight time. Those statistics determine that the pilot was no beginner. He is a veteran. Veterans shouldn't make those mistakes, so I believe that the pilot definitely screwed up. Should he be severely punished for his actions? I don't think that he should be terminated from his job, but I do think that he should be suspended without pay for a few months. While unemployed for a couple of months, I think that the pilot will think about what he did, and will never make this mistake again when he resumes his pilot career.