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Are they serious? Northwest pilots appealing revocation of licenses after overflying MSP
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It was bound to happen, though it's still hard to believe. The two Northwest Airlines pilots who overflew Minneapolis/St. Paul last month and had their pilot licenses revoked by the Federal Aviation Administration, late Wednesday filed an appeal in an attempt to get them reinstated. The appeal was filed with the National Transportation Safety Board on behalf of the captain of Northwest flight, Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Washington and first officer Richard Cole of Salem, Oregon.
On October 21, the Northwest Airlines Airbus A320 aircraft was out of communication for 91 minutes despite repeated attempts by air traffic controllers, airline dispatchers and other aircraft to make contact. Military fighters were within minutes of taking flight from Madison, Wisconsin to intercept the aircraft when communications were reinstated. The White House was also advised of the situation should it have turned into a terrorist hijacking.
Northwest flight 188 overshot the Twin Cities at its cruise altitude of 37,000 feet and continued northeastward over northern Wisconsin. Finally responding to controllers, the aircraft turned around and landed at the intended destination more than an hour late. Airport and federal security officials were waiting for the pilots at the gate as they began the investigation into the very unusual circumstances. Both pilots continue to insist that they did not fall asleep in the cockpit, but instead were deeply engrossed in a new flight crew scheduling program on their personal laptop computers. This, if true, is a violation of airline company policy whether it be Northwest Airlines or its new parent company, Delta Air Lines.
Yesterday FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said that he does not believe that this is an isolated incident, but is more indicative of an erosion in commercial airline pilot professionalism. "I can't regulate professionalism", he said while speaking at an aviation club. "With everything we know about human factors, there are still those who ignore the commonsense rules of safety."
It isn't known yet what grounds the pilots are using to seek reinstatement of their licenses, but it is highly doubtful that any airline traveler would be interested in taking a flight that either of these pilots was commanding in the future.
