Airliner crew flies 150 miles past airport

Been a busy day today.

Wonder what a heated airline policy discussion looks like that could
end up missing calls from ATC and spend 150 miles off course...?

Perhaps they were really just busy texting....

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/10/22...ef=mpstoryview

"Richard" wrote in message
...
Been a busy day today.

Wonder what a heated airline policy discussion looks like that could
end up missing calls from ATC and spend 150 miles off course...?

Perhaps they were really just busy texting....

I have a hard time texting over 13k feet.
they fell asleep. Im surprised this doesnt happen more often with small
aircraft. You engage that auto-pilot and its just so relaxing. Turn on the
xm tilt your head back and life is good, no one to bother you ask you for
things no you know what your daughter did or can you fix this or that. Nope,
just smooth flying across a beautiful country.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/10/22...ef=mpstoryview

On Oct 24, 8:35*pm, "Aluckyguess" wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message

I have a hard time texting over 13k feet.
they fell asleep. *Im surprised this doesnt happen more often with small
aircraft. You engage that auto-pilot and its just so relaxing. Turn on the
xm tilt your head back and life is good, no one to bother you ask you for
things no you know what your daughter did or can you fix this or that. Nope,
just smooth flying across a beautiful country.


I'm sure the specifics will emerge over time but I find it a bit
curious that there's no mention about even a possibility that the
A320's nav system may have experienced a glitch.

I stand to be corrected but on most pilots, the entire flight path is
entered into the FMS even before pushback, with amendments made along
the way as and when required by the ATC in respect of flight levels
and runway destination. I'd once been in the flight deck of an A320
and saw that the craft reached TOD and commenced descent uncommanded
and since on that flight there were no changes in the descent profile,
it virtually flew itself until the ILS was detected whereupon the
pilots kind of flew it manually.

You may recall that even the fated 737 Helios of a few years ago
reached Athens and kept flying a holding pattern until the fuel ran
out despite all on board having died much before then.

It beggars belief that an A320 could've flown on 100 miles past the
destination airport!

Ramapriya

On Oct 25, 8:13*am, D Ramapriya wrote:

Sorry, there were two typos - read "flights" for "pilots" and
"intercepted" for "detected"

Ramapriya

"D Ramapriya" wrote in message
...
On Oct 24, 8:35 pm, "Aluckyguess" wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message

I have a hard time texting over 13k feet.
they fell asleep. Im surprised this doesnt happen more often with small
aircraft. You engage that auto-pilot and its just so relaxing. Turn on the
xm tilt your head back and life is good, no one to bother you ask you for
things no you know what your daughter did or can you fix this or that.
Nope,
just smooth flying across a beautiful country.


I'm sure the specifics will emerge over time but I find it a bit
curious that there's no mention about even a possibility that the
A320's nav system may have experienced a glitch.

I stand to be corrected but on most pilots, the entire flight path is
entered into the FMS even before pushback, with amendments made along
the way as and when required by the ATC in respect of flight levels
and runway destination. I'd once been in the flight deck of an A320
and saw that the craft reached TOD and commenced descent uncommanded
and since on that flight there were no changes in the descent profile,
it virtually flew itself until the ILS was detected whereupon the
pilots kind of flew it manually.

You may recall that even the fated 737 Helios of a few years ago
reached Athens and kept flying a holding pattern until the fuel ran
out despite all on board having died much before then.

It beggars belief that an A320 could've flown on 100 miles past the
destination airport!

Ramapriya

The radios, did they fail and then start working again. The gps the pilots
should be tracking there position. Time they would of noted one heck of a
head wind.
Its common for pilots to take cat naps, just not at the same time. I
maintain they fell asleep. I hope im wrong for the pilots sake.

In article
,
D Ramapriya wrote:

On Oct 24, 8:35*pm, "Aluckyguess" wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message

I have a hard time texting over 13k feet.
they fell asleep. *Im surprised this doesnt happen more often with small
aircraft. You engage that auto-pilot and its just so relaxing. Turn on the
xm tilt your head back and life is good, no one to bother you ask you for
things no you know what your daughter did or can you fix this or that. Nope,
just smooth flying across a beautiful country.

I'm sure the specifics will emerge over time but I find it a bit
curious that there's no mention about even a possibility that the
A320's nav system may have experienced a glitch.

Occam's razor: it's simpler and more believable (at least to me) that
two pilots who were negligent enough to fall asleep (or whatever crazy
thing they did) were also negligent enough to screw up the nav system
set up, or at least leave it in a mode which required manual
intervention to continue to the next phase of flight.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

On Oct 26, 11:40*am, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,
*D Ramapriya wrote:

On Oct 24, 8:35*pm, "Aluckyguess" wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message

I have a hard time texting over 13k feet.
they fell asleep. *Im surprised this doesnt happen more often with small
aircraft. You engage that auto-pilot and its just so relaxing. Turn on the
xm tilt your head back and life is good, no one to bother you ask you for
things no you know what your daughter did or can you fix this or that.. Nope,
just smooth flying across a beautiful country.

I'm sure the specifics will emerge over time but I find it a bit
curious that there's no mention about even a possibility that the
A320's nav system may have experienced a glitch.

Occam's razor: it's simpler and more believable (at least to me) that
two pilots who were negligent enough to fall asleep (or whatever crazy
thing they did) were also negligent enough to screw up the nav system
set up, or at least leave it in a mode which required manual
intervention to continue to the next phase of flight.


It's the accent upon the 100+ miles that gets me.
In a car world 100+ miles -is- a long way.
In an airliner at 400 knots that's 15 minutes.

In article
,
george wrote:

On Oct 26, 11:40*am, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,
*D Ramapriya wrote:

On Oct 24, 8:35*pm, "Aluckyguess" wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message

I have a hard time texting over 13k feet.
they fell asleep. *Im surprised this doesnt happen more often with
small
aircraft. You engage that auto-pilot and its just so relaxing. Turn on
the
xm tilt your head back and life is good, no one to bother you ask you
for
things no you know what your daughter did or can you fix this or that.
Nope,
just smooth flying across a beautiful country.

I'm sure the specifics will emerge over time but I find it a bit
curious that there's no mention about even a possibility that the
A320's nav system may have experienced a glitch.

Occam's razor: it's simpler and more believable (at least to me) that
two pilots who were negligent enough to fall asleep (or whatever crazy
thing they did) were also negligent enough to screw up the nav system
set up, or at least leave it in a mode which required manual
intervention to continue to the next phase of flight.

It's the accent upon the 100+ miles that gets me.
In a car world 100+ miles -is- a long way.
In an airliner at 400 knots that's 15 minutes.

News companies are more interested in getting a story than actually
informing people. "150 miles" sounds scarier and gets more eyeballs than
"15 minutes", so that's what they print. It's sad, but I don't know how
to fix it.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

On Oct 26, 10:12*pm, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,





*george wrote:
On Oct 26, 11:40*am, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,
*D Ramapriya wrote:

On Oct 24, 8:35*pm, "Aluckyguess" wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message

I have a hard time texting over 13k feet.
they fell asleep. *Im surprised this doesnt happen more often with
small
aircraft. You engage that auto-pilot and its just so relaxing. Turn on
the
xm tilt your head back and life is good, no one to bother you ask you
for
things no you know what your daughter did or can you fix this or that.
Nope,
just smooth flying across a beautiful country.

I'm sure the specifics will emerge over time but I find it a bit
curious that there's no mention about even a possibility that the
A320's nav system may have experienced a glitch.

Occam's razor: it's simpler and more believable (at least to me) that
two pilots who were negligent enough to fall asleep (or whatever crazy
thing they did) were also negligent enough to screw up the nav system
set up, or at least leave it in a mode which required manual
intervention to continue to the next phase of flight.

It's the accent upon the 100+ miles that gets me.
In a car world 100+ miles -is- a long way.
In an airliner at 400 knots that's 15 minutes.

News companies are more interested in getting a story than actually
informing people. "150 miles" sounds scarier and gets more eyeballs than
"15 minutes", so that's what they print. It's sad, but I don't know how
to fix it.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

Mike, it's been written they were not in contact with center for the
order of an hour. Even at 10,000 feet I'm looking for lower 15 or 20
minutes from my ETA for a gradual letdown, and I expect those folks
plan their descent better than I do.

In article
,
a wrote:

On Oct 26, 10:12*pm, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,





*george wrote:
On Oct 26, 11:40*am, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,
*D Ramapriya wrote:

On Oct 24, 8:35*pm, "Aluckyguess" wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message

I have a hard time texting over 13k feet.
they fell asleep. *Im surprised this doesnt happen more often with
small
aircraft. You engage that auto-pilot and its just so relaxing. Turn
on
the
xm tilt your head back and life is good, no one to bother you ask
you
for
things no you know what your daughter did or can you fix this or
that.
Nope,
just smooth flying across a beautiful country.

I'm sure the specifics will emerge over time but I find it a bit
curious that there's no mention about even a possibility that the
A320's nav system may have experienced a glitch.

Occam's razor: it's simpler and more believable (at least to me) that
two pilots who were negligent enough to fall asleep (or whatever crazy
thing they did) were also negligent enough to screw up the nav system
set up, or at least leave it in a mode which required manual
intervention to continue to the next phase of flight.

It's the accent upon the 100+ miles that gets me.
In a car world 100+ miles -is- a long way.
In an airliner at 400 knots that's 15 minutes.

News companies are more interested in getting a story than actually
informing people. "150 miles" sounds scarier and gets more eyeballs than
"15 minutes", so that's what they print. It's sad, but I don't know how
to fix it.

Mike, it's been written they were not in contact with center for the
order of an hour. Even at 10,000 feet I'm looking for lower 15 or 20
minutes from my ETA for a gradual letdown, and I expect those folks
plan their descent better than I do.

Yeah, I don't mean to minimize what happened. Ignoring the radios for an
hour was extremely bad. It just seems to me that the media focuses on
the wrong thing. "Missed the airport by 150 miles" is not a whole lot,
and is not the important part of the story. "Out of contact for an hour"
is, but you don't see that in the headlines.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon