Well. An interesting story, but there's a stink of heavy, cheap perfume
around it.

If events occured as described here, why then did they not state the
facts immediately and lie that they had slept? And then later change
their story about being completely engrossed in their laptops.

I simply don't believe that "the NTSB official came over to Tim and said he
did not know why they even called them in for this event. There was no
safety issue." Oh, please. Sure as hell there was a safety issue, when
an airliner overflies its destination and is out of communication for
that long.

The Captain and F.O. were careless and sloppy. Period. They got a good
deal by merely having their licenses revoked. I don't think they should
be banned for life, but having to re-do all the training again from
ab-initio is perfectly fair for what they did to their passengers,
flight attendants, their fellow professional pilots, and the national
air control system.
--
Turn over the pages of history and read the damning record of the
church's opposition to every advance in every field of science.
~ Upton Sinclair