Bored Pilots Miss Their Destination - YouTube

Last week, we discovered the brave and heroic actions of some Northwest Airlines Pilots

that saved a Boeing 747 from disaster.

Today, we are going to take a look at another Northwest Airlines flight that ended not as

heroically as the other one.

In October 2009, a Northwest Airbus A320 flew across a large part of the United States without

radio contact, having everyone worried.

The story behind it is quite baffling.

Let’s find out what happened here.

Welcome to Airspace.

First off, you are probably wondering why I’m showing you a Delta Airlines plane while

I’m talking about a northwest flight.

The reason behind this is that Northwest and Delta were in the progress of merging at that

time, leading to a situation where the plane had already been repainted in a Delta Airlines

livery, while it was still operated as a Northwest flight.

Anyway, Northwest Flight 188 departed San Diego in the afternoon for a flight across

the United States to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The flight progressed smoothly and the two pilots, both in their fifties, had a friendly

chat with each other, as is custom during more relaxed cruise flights when the workload

is low.

But about halfway through the flight, radio contact to the plane was suddenly lost when

the aircraft crossed the greater Denver area.

Air traffic control tried to raise the plane on multiple frequencies, even the international

emergency frequency.

Other planes operated by northwest and Delta tried to call them as well, but no answer

was ever received.

As controllers grew more and more concerned, they tried to contact the Northwest headquarters,

but they had difficulties finding a correct number.

When they finally got a hold of the operations department, the latter agreed to send messages

to the aircraft using ACARS, a technology that allows text messages to be sent to aircraft

via radio.

Several such messages were sent, but the crew did not respond to either of them.

The A320 just continued along its flight plan route, cruising at 37’000 feet.

When the flight neared Minneapolis, one air traffic controller finally had enough and

declared that the plane had officially lost all radio contact.

Government officials were informed, and concern grew.

Had the aircraft been hijacked?

Fighter jets were readied to intercept the aircraft, so that a closer assessment of the

situation could be established.

As the aircraft crossed over Minneapolis, several other concerning theories emerged.

What if the plane had suffered an insidious slow decompression that went unnoticed?

Such a case is almost unheard of, and then again, it happened to a crew of Helios Flight

522.

That flight had climbed to cruising altitude without anyone noticing that the cabin never

pressurized.

Everyone on board fell unconscious and the flight just continued to destination on autopilot,

finally ran out of fuel and crashed.

As the flight flew further northeast, away from Minneapolis, one air traffic controller

had an idea – what if Northwest 188 was actually listening to another frequency?

The last frequency it was handed off to was not very different from the frequency of another

control sector to the north after all.

The controller sent another northwest aircraft over to this other sector, asking them to

try and relay a message to Northwest 188.

And indeed, just moments later, with the fighter jets still on the ground, Northwest 188 suddenly

checked in with air traffic control.

The pilots stated in a calm manner that they had been distracted and that they would now

like to fly into Minneapolis.

Listen for yourself: The air traffic controller welcomed them back

and asked them to confirm if the cockpit was secure, thereby asking if they were hijacked

or not.

The pilots responded that it was indeed secure and that they were just a bit distracted by

company matters.

Air traffic control did not ask any further questions and guided the plane to the landing

runway, and eventually, Northwest 188 arrived at the gate with a delay of about one hour.

After the strange events, the two pilots were interviewed thoroughly to establish how this

strange incident could have happened.

They recounted the events as follows: Shortly before 19:00 central time, the two

pilots were involved in a friendly discussion.

When it ended, the captain decided to go for a short toilet break, and the first officer

was alone on the flight deck.

At 18:57, Denver air traffic control instructed northwest 188 to contact the next air traffic

control sector on frequency of 132.175 MHz.

The first officer read back the frequency to air traffic control, but then he made a

crucial mistake.

He tuned the aircraft’s radio to 132.125, not 132.175.

This frequency did not belong to the intended air traffic control sector, but to Winnipeg,

further up north in Canada.

After his initial mistake, he made a second one – he did not check in with air traffic

control to announce that he now was on this frequency.

Had he done that, Winnipeg Control would have told him that he is in the wrong place and

that he should go back and ask for the correct frequency.

Just at that crucial moment, the captain returned to the flight deck.

After he took his seat, the two pilots continued their discussion.

Quickly, the topic of the recent merger came up.

With this merger, a plethora of new procedures and manuals were issued to the pilots, not

only concerning flight related matters, but also regarding their work rosters and vacation

planning.

As of October 1st, a new vacation and work bidding system had been implemented that allowed

pilots to bid on vacation slots, days off or popular flight routes.

To help the pilots understand these new systems, Delta Air Lines had issued a 155-page guide

and 26 separate multi-page briefings.

If you are now wondering, how the heck can a system to bid for days off and vacation

be so complicated?

Let me just assure you that the correct operation of these systems so that your monthly roster

isn’t a complete and utter mess filled with 12h work days and no days off requires all

but a bachelor’s degree.

It’s one of the really annoying things in aviation.

Soon, the two pilots started talking about the new bidding system, how confusing it was

and all that good stuff.

The first officer told the captain that he thought he understood the system quite well,

and that he could help the captain a bit if he was interested.

The latter did not know much about the new tool yet.

To get some hands-on experience, both pilots got their laptops out and started comparing

their bidding results.

This was a violation of company procedures, which dictates that the laptops may not be

used in flight.

To the pilots, everything must have had an air of normality, since they could hear radio

chatter in the background.

They got a little carried away and continued discussing their schedules and how to improve

them.

An hour and four minutes after their last radio communication, the A320 overflew the

last waypoint stored in the flight plan, and since it no longer knew where to navigate

to, the autopilot reverted to heading mode, just maintaining the current heading.

This is announced to the pilots with an audible triple click, sounding like this:

This sound usually gets the attention of both pilots immediately since it announces that

the flight management system suddenly reverted to something else that the pilot intended

to.

The two pilots of northwest 188 however did not seem to notice and continued their discussion.

Only when some minutes later a flight attendant entered the cockpit and asked when the flight

would be landing did the pilots realize that they had gotten a little carried away.

They had overshot their destination by 110 Nautical Miles, that is 126 miles or just

over 200 kilometres.

Immediately, they called air traffic control after a radio silence period of one hour and

15 minutes.

The landing that followed was uneventful.

They must have been very focussed on their roster bidding, since they also missed all

of the ACARS messages their operations department had sent them over the air.

When such a message is received, a small reminder flashes on the ECAM, right here.

It is not very conspicuous, but had they checked their engine displays just once in that hour,

they would probably have noticed it.

The incident revealed several deficiencies in various areas.

For one, the air traffic controllers should have declared that the aircraft was radio

silent much sooner, initiating the appropriate procedures.

Also, Northwest’s operations department was unreachable first, because the number

that was listed had recently been disconnected due to the merger with Delta Air Lines.

And lastly, the pilots should have monitored the international emergency frequency on their

second radio.

It is a bit tedious at times because the frequency is often abused for chatter, childish jokes

and so on, but in general, it is a nice backup.

However, the pilots never responded to any calls made on that frequency.

As a result of this amazing blunder, the two pilots had their licenses revoked within a

week of the accident.

They were banned from flying for three years, after which they were allowed to apply for

new pilots’ licenses if they wished.

I do not know if they ever did.

And that was the strange story of Northwest Airlines flight 188.

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