Missed Minneapolis by that much: A few more laughs at Northwest’s expense

by Janice Hough on October 23, 2009

minneapolis

By now most Consumer Traveler readers will have heard this story: A Delta (Northwest) plane bound from San Diego to Minneapolis overshot the airport by 150 miles. The crew members eventually realized their mistake and turned the plane around, landing without further incident.

As airline mistakes go, this one at least resulted in no real harm done, except for wasting some jet fuel. And no doubt exposing Delta to being the brunt of late-night jokes. (Fortunately for the airline, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien are on vacation this week. )

But you have to ask, what were they thinking? Or rather, not thinking. The official explanation from the crew is that they were engaged in a “heated discussion” about airline policy.

(If so, what policy? The one that tells them to ask for directions? Or read a map? Or has the airline started charging pilots for their onboard happy hour?)

It’s also not like this was overshooting an airport like Bemidji or Brainerd, which are both in Minnesota and less than 100 miles apart. This was Minneapolis, a Delta hub and one of the 20 biggest airports in the country.

There were also reports that the crew did not respond to radio contact for over an hour. And that the FAA had notified the Air National Guard, who then put two fighter jets on alert. The fighter jets, however, also reportedly never came close to taking off.

(But think about it, the aircraft first simply bypassed Minneapolis, then made a U-turn and landed there safely. Who was flying the plane? Brett Favre?)

Delta has taken the pilots off active duty. They have not announced if there will be any compensation for the passengers, who didn’t realized the plane had taken a little “detour” until after they landed.

But I would hate to be a Delta agent trying to explain why they can’t grant a fare waiver to the next passenger who misses a plane because they got lost on the way to the airport.

(No word also on if the airline will credit everyone’s frequent flier account with the 300 extra miles.)

(Photo of Minneapolis Airport from the airport by Aaron Landry/flickr/creative commons)

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Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport

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Tagged as: Delta pilot jokes, Delta Air Lines, Minneapolis airport, missing airport, Northwest Airlines, Northwest jokes, pilot fatigue, pilot jokes

  • Frank

    As airline mistakes go, this one at least resulted in no real harm done, except for wasting some jet fuel. And no doubt exposing Delta to being the brunt of late-night jokes.
    ==================================================

    “SAFETY” is never a laughing matter.

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  • Frank

    A Delta (Northwest) plane bound from San Diego to Minneapolis overshot the airport by 150 miles. The crew members eventually realized their mistake and turned the plane around, landing without further incident.
    ===================================================

    oK, They overshot the airport by 150 miles. Ok, this aircraft travels at the speed of over 500 miles per hour. What was that, like 15 MINUTES past it’s destination??
    The NO RADIO contact is what concerns me. ATC thought they may have been hijacked. Serious. No Radio contact for over an hour.

    The Tapes will have the answers.

  • Hapgood

    Why would there be any reason to compensate the passengers, since they suffered no harm? If anything, Delta should use this as an opportunity to generate some ancillary revenue. How about charging the passengers a retroactive “fuel cost recovery fee” to offset the expense of the wasted jet fuel?

    (Yes, Frank, safety is never a laughing matter. I hope that in addition to disciplining the flight crew appropriately, Delta’s management carefully reviews their processes and procedures to ensure that situations like this don’t happen.)

  • Amy

    I thought your joke about the passengers being credited the extra 300 miles was one of the better ones. Nice.

  • Kelly

    This was talked about this morning on a local radio show here in Detroit, which is also a large hub for Delta. There were flight attendants and finally one pilot that had called in.

    The DJs were speculating that the pilots both feel asleep and didn’t hear the radio. Then the conversation went on with comments from callers, mostly claming to be flight attendants, that the one of the pilots can sleep in the cockpit, and some said no. Then a pilot (I guess no way really to find out if he really was a pilot, but he made some excellent points and referenced some rules that would have alluded him to actually be one) finally called in and tried to set the record straight. He said that pilots are NOT allowed to sleep on any flight while on duty, epecially dosmestic. He said that are allowed to sleep in some type of sleeping quarters and have a back-up pilot take over if one is available, and this mostly occurs on international flights.

    He also mentioned that he has come across pilots that make deals with each other in the cockpit that one can take a nap while the other flies. So he suspects that the one pilot was napping and the other one also fell alseep. Otherwise there should be no reason why they wouldn’t have heard Air Traffic Control repeatedly trying to get ahold of them for over an hour.

    He said that there is major discipline when a pilot is caught sleeping when they shouldn’t be; this happened to a former colleague of his.

    I personally think this pilot is on to something and the pilots conjured up a story to stick to so they wouldn’t get in even more trouble then they already were.

    But who really knows what happened, I am just glad that the passengers were able to get to their destination safely.

  • Doug

    I have to agree with Frank. While the overshoot in itself is annoying and may have resulted in missed connections, the airline would probably have treated that the same way as they treat missed connections caused by weather, although hopefully if somebody had to stay overnight as a result, Delta would have covered the room.

    What’s more worrying is the fact that the pilots ignored ATC for that time and that interceptors were about to be launched. What if they had been launched, reached the plane and still couldn’t get any response from the pilots? The story may not be as funny this morning….

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  • http://flickr.com/photos/s4xton/538013803/ Aaron

    Per the Creative Commons license, please linkback with a similar CC license. Here’s the link:

    http://flickr.com/photos/s4xton/538013803/

    Thanks for sharing my photography. And yes, the story is quite funny.

    -Aaron

  • http://leftcoastsportsbabe.com Janice Hough

    Sometimes the funniest stuff is un-intended. Not making this up, the following headline on a Delta email today to frequent fliers (about buying miles)

    “Need A Few More Miles To Get To That Dream Vacation?”

  • Matt

    Heated conversation–I’ll bet a dime they were invovled in much more than that. I would even specultate this has something to do with a passion between the two–perhaps they shared a moment (or hour) of “activity”–the ultimate “mile high club.” I’d hate to fly Northwest with this reputation.

  • kiki d

    we had the same situation here on the big island a couple years ago where a couple of (former!) go! pilots overshop the hilo airport and were out of contact for about 20 minutes. it turns out they WERE asleep! what i found amazing is that the honolulu to hilo flight is only about 30-40 minutes depending upon the winds in the channel…those pilots practically had “off” buttons to be able to fall asleep that fast.

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  • Jim

    FAA s solution – Pilots shall all wear a shock collar activated by a door switch on the lavatory in coach class. Deltas CEO – another bonus for cost savings and another fee to us to cover the retrofit. God I love flying!!

  • Deus Lux

    Janice,

    You know men will NEVER ask for directions:

    “I know that airport is around here some where…”

    DL

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  • Nobody

    “I would even specultate this has something to do with a passion between the two–perhaps they shared a moment (or hour) of “activity”–the ultimate “mile high club.” –Matt

    Yep. After those two pilots found naked in the cockpit a few years ago, first thing that crossed my mind. At least those pilots had an immediate excuse–they both spilled coffee on themselves and took off ALL of their clothing to hang up and dry!

    And so much for the “tapes” from the voice cockpit recorder. This ancient Airbus technology only held the last 30 minutes of pilot banter, unlike the high tech planes which hold the last two hours on American equipment. Why doesn’t the alphabet soup of government agencies like NTSB, FAA, FBI, NSO, TSA require equipment like the British who record the entire flight? That data and voice recording could provide evidence that something or someone screwed up right at the beginning.
    Why don’t we have that simple technology in force? After all, this is the Double-Naughts!

    Before you is the crash site
    of the strange hijacked NWA flight
    Shot down by F-16s
    To save Minnineapolis
    RIP
    Nobody was faster

  • Nobody

    Hey, they did land on the proper runway, didn’t they. Seems to me earlier in the week some flight landed on a taxiway.

    Look on the Bright Side of Life
    What can you do when you see
    The demon throwing metal into the engine
    Outside your window?
    RIP
    Nobody was faster

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  • WTF?

    Nobody? news comment poetry. Now I got the Life of Brian whistling song stuck in my head.
    Always look on the bright side of life…. doot da doot da doot da doot da doot.

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