That’s scary! A postscript on Northwest’s “missed Minneapolis” problem

The Delta/Northwest story about the pilots overflying Minneapolis last week is in some ways a perfect distracting travel story. Nobody died, nobody was injured. A plane wasn’t even damaged. Like the “balloon boy” hoax of the previous week, it has captured the nation’s attention, and provided a distraction from larger issues such as the economy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and healthcare reform.

But that isn’t to say the whole situation doesn’t bring up some larger issues along with the levity.

For starters, does anyone really think this is the first time pilots have been using personal laptops in the cockpit?

This was a relatively short flight: not much over three hours flying time. What happens on the really long boring flights?

What was the FAA’s first clue about the laptops? When the pilots changed their Facebook status from “heading to Minneapolis” to “Oops, heading BACK to Minneapolis?

On the bright side, I guess by flying so far past Minneapolis they at least weren’t using their laptops within 10 minutes of landing.

And now that the FAA says the pilots were out of touch for 91 minutes. Aren’t we perhaps giving them just a bit too large a time window before pushing the panic button? What if it had been something more serious involving the pilots’ health, instead of just major brain cramps? How long would it have taken to start rectifying the situation?

I wonder how long it would have taken to raise an alert if the pilots couldn’t get the flight attendants’ attention?

Along with putting barricades on cockpit doors, should we consider peepholes? And if there are peepholes on the cockpit doors, why weren’t they used?

Though I haven’t worked for an airline, I have the sense that most flight attendants don’t feel comfortable disturbing pilots during flight, for a number of reasons. But maybe there should be mandatory brief “check-in” requirements with the cockpit, much as flight attendants walk through the aisles checking on passengers’ seat belts. (If any reader has experience confirming this or to the contrary, please feel free to comment.)

One thing is pretty much for sure, if laptops, Blackberries, video games, cellphones and iPods have been used regularly in the cockpit in the past, that practice has more than likely will be severely curtailed for the foreseeable future.

Oh, and one last bit of levity: The pilots may have lost their licenses. But they may be offered promotional contracts with Verizon – “Can you hear me now?”

(Photo: ajc3/flickr/creative commons)

Tagged as: Delta pilots, humor, Northwest pilots