Most of us would agree that the tale of a Northwest flight overflying its destination by 150 miles is more than a little bizarre. The pilots say they were having a debate (which seems less than credible unless they closed their eyes and took off their headphones to do so); others suggest they fell asleep. Neither explanation will enhance confidence in commercial air travel.
It will be a while before we know all the facts, so there is no need yet to rush to a judgment on the pilots, the airline, or the equipment. While we await the results of an investigation by the NTSB, though, two points stand out:
We are already hearing from some quarters that the airlines and the FAA are to blame for setting rules that exhaust the pilots. I find that a little hard to believe. My impression is that the rules were set up years ago with pretty generous margins to allow for pilot rest. Has something changed? Are major carriers really ignoring the rules in these trying economic times?
There's a question of how much danger passengers were in. Again, I'm no expert, but my understanding from some I've known in the industry is that in normal conditions, a modern airplane will be flying on automatic from takeoff to landing, and that is considered quite safe. So no immediate danger, perhaps, but as one talking head on television observed, it could be very dangerous if they outflew their fuel supply. The safety question revolves around how quickly that could happen; certainly we can assume the carriers are trying to minimize fuel supplies onboard.
Ultimately, though, these are exogenous factors and the focus must be on the pilots. Autopilot may be safe, but it's probably boring as hell for the pilots...No wonder they fall asleep -- if they did -- it's as mind-numbing as driving on the interstate. That's the challenge, for pilots and the airlines.
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