(Northwest) Flight Had No Contact for 3 Hours - Breaking

[tomm2thumbs]

Source: Fox

...Northwest Airlines Flight 188 that overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles in October was out of contact with air traffic controllers for approximately three hours, and NORAD was not informed until the last few minutes.

Sources told Fox News there were three NORDO's --- or non-contacts -- the first one occurring shortly after the plane reached cruising altitude out of San Diego. The military was not notified until after the third NORDO -- which occurred as the plane approached Minneapolis.

_____


Read more: http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/northwest-flight-188-minneapolis-no-contact-3-hours

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Sorry about the source, but could not find it elsewhere.

This news comes on the heels of the pilots filing appeals to their loss of licenses filed today. I dont' know about you, but 3 hours is a long time to have lost contact with the airline and makes one wonder who is minding the store at the FAA for this to come out so late after the fact.

[TwilightGardener]

1. So...pilots spaced out, ATC not paying much attention either...nice.

[katkat]

12. spaced out, is that a new definition of asleep?

[Love Bug]

2. Let me get this right...

Because of 9/11 I have to remove my shoes at the airport, can't take most liquids onto the plane, and have to practically submit to a full body scan but the FAA can take their sweet 'ol time reporting to NORAD a non-responsive commercial plane? I live in Minneapolis and just think about this: what if that plane HAD been hijacked with the intention of crashing into a large, metropolitan area such as the Twin Cities?

Who's minding the store, here?

[jobycom]

6. Yeah. nt

[GodlessBiker]

14. Yep. No shampoo for you, but planes we can't talk to are okay.

[Raschel]

15. I'm in Mpls too. Makes me not want to fly again.

:scared:

[Gormy Cuss]

24. More proof that what we have is security theater, not better air security.

Most of the passenger screening added since 9/11 is nothing more than a show intended to make passengers feel safer.

[dysfunctional press]

26. not just minneapolis...

there are other big cities and such between SAN and MSP.

[EFerrari]

3. And there you have it. All this baloney about "national security"

-- the reason 9/11 shook up so many politicians is because it exposed how little they really do work to secure the safety of the citizenry. When they say "national security" they're talking about their investments and we're not one of them.

[mod mom]

4. Pilot friends says there's speculation among pilots that this might have to do w a malfunction

of airbus'. Anyone else hear anything like this?

[tomm2thumbs]

5. the failure to respond to non-contact or the pilots being on their computers?

I guess I'm not sure what issue the malfunction you mention is at issue. Maybe a bad clock?

[mod mom]

17. He said they couldn't make contact. He works for another major airline & doesn't fly Airbus.

He thinks we're not getting the full story, & finds it hard to believe that there could be such dereliction of duty.

[tomm2thumbs]

18. thanks - interesting given cell phones and computers on board but interesting

[FSogol]

7. 3 hours doesn't make sense. One of those planes travels 150 miles in about 20 minutes. n/t

[dysfunctional press]

27. why doesn't it make sense...?

it's a long way from san diego to minneapolis.

[CoffeeCat]

8. Trying to understand this...

The article says that there were three NORDOS--or no contacts. This means:

--The ground tried to contact the cockpit one time, but got a 'no response' or a NORDO. This happened over San Diego.
--Then, they tried again...no response.
--Then a third time, still no response. This happened after they overshot Minneapolis.

What I'm wondering---why didn't all hell break loose after the ground got no response the first time? So, they tried
to contact the plane, got no response and then just nonchalantly tried again in an hour or so? Does this even make
sense, especially after 9/11? The TSA took my pudding cups away from me, but no one acts when a transcontinental
airliner doesn't respond to the ground. REALLY!

Given that the plane overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles--wouldn't the NORDO combined with the plane veering off its
course--cause hells bells to ring?

I'm not getting this AT ALL.

I don't know the inside of a cockpit from a peach pit, so pardon my ignorance with these questions. So, the
pilots say that they were 'on their laptops' and this is the reason why they overshot Minneapolis. However,
that doesn't explain why they didn't respond THREE TIMES to the ground contacting them. They're on their laptops.
I get it. But that doesn't explain why they didn't respond to the ground contacting them. They were IN THE COCKPIT,
probably inches away from the communication equipment that was trying to talk with them. Being on a laptop doesn't
prevent you from hearing, right?

Bizarre, that the first "no reply" or NORDO--happened over San Diego--and that this plane made it all the way to
Minneapolis.

Also bizarre that this plane didn't respond to the ground three times, AND that it overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles.

Quite a mystery. I wish these pilots would just come clean and tell us the truth.

[Roland99]

9. Already lost their licenses.Might as well come clean now.

I still think sex in the cockpit is likely.

[tonysam]

22. Somebody or somebodies were definitely

on their laptops, and I doubt they were the computer variety.

[MindPilot]

23. cockpit sex?

I'm trying, but I'm having a tough time thinking of someplace less comfortable and more inconvenient than an airliner cockpit.

[dysfunctional press]

29. an airliner bathroom?

and yet...

[Sinti]

13. Speaks volumes, even if the pilots were forever silent, doesn't it? n/t

[Raschel]

16. I can't believe they're appealing. And can't believe some people think that some people think

that no response for even seventy minutes is no big deal. Their story is a big crock, and everyone knows it. What is being hidden that the airline doesn't want us to know?

[dysfunctional press]

28. plus- there would have been cockpit alarms when they overshot msp...

from what i saw in a news report.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. The entire flight was 3 hours long. Here, some info:

I checked Wiki:

The Airbus A320 took off from San Diego at 3:01 p.m. PDT.
Just under two hours later, at 6:56 p.m. CDT, Air Traffic Control lost contact with the aircraft while it was over Kansas, enroute to Minneapolis.
Flight 188 was scheduled to land at 8:01 pm CDT, but contact with the aircraft remained lost until 8:14 p.m. CDT, by which time the flight had overflown the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and was over Wisconsin.
The aircraft finally landed, over an hour late, at 9:04 p.m. CDT.
****Fighter aircraft had also been prepared to be scrambled but Air Traffic Control had re-established contact before they were able to take off. NORAD is investigating a possible delay in the FAA notifying them about the "radio out" situation.
The FAA said that the pilots, who were out of communications with air traffic controllers
for 91 minutes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines_Flight_188
***************************************
So, still there was no communication for 91 minutes and no NORAD scramble.
Which unfortunately serves to back up the Bush WH story of controllers being responsible for not alerting NORAD on 9/11.

I do not fly, period. But if I did, I would be screaming at the powers that be in defiance of the
searches and all that other bullshit at airports.
Actually, I would not trust airlines or the gov't about any of this so called safety crap.
but, that's just me.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Here is the flight tracker from that date.

It too says flight was 3 hours and 54 minutes long.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/NWA188/history/20091021/2135Z/KSAN/KMSP

[Hekate]

20. If I could do without flying, believe me I would. However, it would take 2 DAYS to get to a sick mom

... instead of half a day's hassle with the airlines that includes a couple of hours flying. After a nightmare with TSA in Salt Lake City one time I investigated Amtrak -- the train goes from Santa Barbara to Sacramento, stays overnight, and then chugs out to SLC. That's it. That's the schedule.

Next time my late mother had a medical emergency I held my nose and called the airline.

Sis lives in upstate New York -- I don't even know how long that takes by car or rail, but it would more than eat up any vacation I ever had.

The only relative I visit by train or car is my brother who lives in San Clemente. That and I took the train to San Diego for my aunt's memorial service.

The US is so mobile and families are so spread out that for an awful lot of us the only way we can keep in touch physically is to fly from one place to another even though Bush's TSA and the airlines' greed make it a misery.

Hekate

[slackmaster]

19. Three hours = About two complete human sleep cycles

Go figure.

[W T F]

21. NO NO NO! Fox News is not news! They got it wrong. Here's The FAA 's Letter...

To the Captain. They claim they were out of contact for 90 minutes not 3 hours according to the FAA.


http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1.0.1&thid=124c250f2910256e&mt=application%2Fpdf&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3D2%26ik%3Db0b0514fce%26view%3Datt%26th%3D124c250f2910256e%26attid%3D0.1.0.1%26disp%3Dattd%26zw&sig=AHBy-hY1wwkOO9langz9_SLr7Ks9UBuTqA

[Art_from_Ark]

25. Absolutely

Any "news" network that would go to court to maintain its "right" to pass off grossly inaccurate "information" to an unsuspecting public isn't worth a bucket of warm spit.

[CynicalObserver]

30. the info made public so far is so carefully controlled I have no idea what happened here

lots of passengers would, at least, know they were very late without having started descent, and would have communicated with the cabin crew, who would also know, and who would have asked the pilots. As far as I know, not a single passenger interview or address of this topic has appeared, yet it is an obvious area for a journalist to look into. Hwck, anytime something scary happens on a flight, a passenger comment (real or fabricated, who knows) appears.

The fact that the above has been excluded from 'news' leads me to believe that this story is being managed rather than reported, and the public has in no way been told the truth.

[RobinA]

31. This Has Been My Thought

Pilots on laptops forgetting that they were flying a plane? Both pilots asleep and not awakened by radio traffic? I dunno. I'm an Occam's Razor believer, but these stories just stink to me. Plus, everyone involved seems quite blase about it. No table-thumping calls for an investigation, no protestations from the pilots who seemingly lost their livelihood. Seems weird to me.

[Missy Vixen]

32. I wish this was an OP

There are too many things about this situation that just don't add up.

Thanks for your comments.

:hi: