Safety investigators are highly skilled at solving the mystery of plane crashes. But with Northwest Flight 188, which landed safely, they are tackling a different puzzle: what went on in the cockpit to cause it to fly for 500 miles without radio contact, and well beyond its destination?
On Friday, investigators sought to explain why the two pilots of the Northwest flight, bound from San Diego to Minneapolis-St. Paul, did not begin a normal descent when they should have on Wednesday night.
The pilots, Capt. Timothy B. Cheney, 53, of Gig Harbor, Wash., and First Officer Richard I. Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore., said they had been involved in a heated discussion about airline policy and lost track of where they were.
Skepticism about the explanation resounded through airline and aviation safety circles, which collectively wondered whether the pair had fallen asleep.
“What did they say? What went on? What was the subject of discussion — or weren’t they talking?” asked James L. Oberstar, the veteran Minnesota Democratic congressman and chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Mr. Cole denied that the two had been asleep. “I can assure you none of us was asleep,” he told ABC News on Friday night. He declined to comment further but stated, “I am not doing very good.”
I think this will explain things.
Click on the pic to enlarge.
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