Northwest Airlines Flight 188 Pilot Explains How Plane Overshot Minneapolis

 Ever since the pilots of NWA 188 overflew their Minneapolis destination, speculation has been rampant about what actually happened in the cockpit. It was widely assumed that the pilots had fallen asleep. Their subsequent explanation that they’d been out of radio communication for 78 minutes because they became distracted while using their laptops seemed strange enough that it might indeed be true. Still, most pilots wondered how both pilots could have totally lost situational awareness for so long.

I received an email today, reproduced below, that purports to have the full explanation...

as relayed to “Mike,” a friend of Captain Tim Cheney. I’m always skeptical of anonymous emails forwarded over the internet and a little sleuthing found that it appeared Friday afternoon on the Airline Biz blog of the Dallas Morning News. Reporter Terry Maxon refers to it as a “thrice forwarded email” which I take to mean that was able to verify the email’s authenticity by tracing it back three steps. Even if this email is proven to be a hoax, it does a credible job of explaining how a series of events and distractions could have caused the incident. While it explains what happened, it certainly cannot absolve the pilots of responsibility. Even if ATC were complicit in the incident, it’s up to pilots to recognize when a problem has occurred and to take action to resolve it. That hasn’t changed since the days of Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Hi All,

I had a one hour conversation with Tim Cheney yesterday and would like to shed some light on what happened to cause the over flight of their destination, MSP.

Before I begin with details, I wanted to say right up front that although there are many events that helped to cause this, Tim takes full responsibility and places no blame on anyone but himself. He is very humbled by what has happened and fully understands that as captain, he was responsible for the a/c, crew and passengers. That said, he wanted me to know how it all happened. Secondly, he has the full support of his neighbors in Gig Harbor, WA, as well has his church parishioners. One of his neighbors wrote a letter to the Star & Tribune in Minneapolis saying how great a family the Cheney's were, I agree.

On their flight from San Diego to Minneapolis, after passing Denver, the f/a called the cockpit to let them know Tim's crew meal was ready. Tim was the "flying pilot" on this leg, so he told his F/O that when the f/a brings the meal up, he will step back to use the restroom. When Tim returned, the F/A left the cockpit and he began to eat his crew meal. When a pilot leaves to use the restroom, it is customary for the other pilot to brief him on his return on "any changes", such as altitude, heading, course changes or atc center frequency changes, etc. In this instance, nothing was said....even though the f/o had received a frequency change. The problem that occurred was that the f/o never got a response on the new frequency....it was not the correct frequency....it was a Winnipeg Canada Center Freq.

Now, Denver Center is trying to get a hold of them because they never checked in, because the f/o had dialed in the wrong freq......that is who called them so many times....but, then there was a shift change at Denver Center and no one briefed the new controller that there was a NORDO A/C (non communications) in their airspace....so, in actuality, atc basically "lost" this a/c.....see Wall Street Journal article below.

Tim told me he heard atc chatter on the speaker and so never thought they were out of radio range.....but, of course, they were hearing pilots talk on Winnipeg Center. For non-pilots.....when we don't hear anything for a long while...we ask atc if they are still there....sometimes they are and sometimes you are out of their area and need to find a new frequency. With this chatter going on, there was no concern that they were not being controlled.

Then Tim told the f/o that the new bidding system was horrible and that his November schedule was not what he hoped for. He mentioned that his son was going into the Army in Dec. and he wanted certain days off so he could see him off.....the f/o said he could help him, he knew more about the new bidding system. Tim got his lap top out and put it on his left leg and showed the f/o how he bid. He told me he had his lap top out for maybe 2 minutes. Then the f/o said that he would show him how to do it on his laptop. He had his laptop out maximum of 5 minutes.

Let's also add the 100 kt tail wind that they had to the discussion, not helping matters.

The f/a's called the cockpit on the interphone(no they did not kick the door, no, no one was sleeping, no, no one was fighting) and asked when they will get there. They looked at their nav screens and were directly over MSP. Because they had their screens set on the max, 320 kt setting, when the f/o called on the frequency, which of course was Winnipeg Center, he saw Eau Claire and Duluth on his screen. They asked where they were and the f/o told them over Eau Claire, which was not even close, but MSP had disappeared from the screen even though they were right over the city.

They were, as you all know, vectored all over the sky to determine if they had control of the a/c and Tim kept telling the f/o to tell them they have control they want to land at MSP, etc. They landed with 11,000 pounds of fuel (no they did not come in on fumes, but had 2 hours in an A320) and not but 15 minutes past schedule, even though they left San Diego 35 minutes late due to an atc flow restriction.

In the jet-way awaiting them were FBI and every other authority you can imagine.

Aftermath and tidbits:

Although these pilots filed an NASAP Report, which was designed to have pilots tell the truth about events, so the FAA could learn from them, they had their licenses revoked by the ATL F.A.A. even before they came out of their meeting with NTSB and NASAP meetings.

ATL FAA is really big on this new regulation which will allow pilots to take a short nap in flight so they will be rested for the approach...they were insistent that they were sleeping.

MSP FAA, Vance (do not know last name) was the person who handed Tim his revocation letter(which was leaked to the entire world by the ATL FAA). Tim said Vance had tears in his eyes and walked away, said nothing. It was later learned that the entire MSP FAA office did not agree at all with revoking their pilot's licenses, but had no jurisdiction over the matter, since ATL FAA had control because of Delta.

The pilots have been to Wash. D.C., ATL and MSP for several meetings. In ATL, they met with the chief pilots and Tim said they could not have been nicer. They are working to resolve this, not to try and fire them. But of course, they will have to get their license back for Delta to consider allowing them to continue flying. The appeal has been files for the FAA to reinstate their licenses or to settle on some form of punishment, etc.

When Tim and his wife were in MSP for a meeting with the NTSB, they happen to be staying at the same hotel as the NTSB was. The next morning in the lobby, the NTSB official came over to Tim and said he did not know why they even called them in for this event. There was no safety issue. Also, MSP Center informed Delta that there never was a problem and no aircraft were near their plane. Even though no radio communications, they had been followed and separated.

Yes, the company tried to contact them on ACARS, but the 320 does not have a chime...it has a 30 second light which then extinguishes.
Tim always has 121.5 tuned, but as we all know as pilots, it can get very noisy at times and we turn it down and sometimes forget to turn it back on. He told me this may have been the case.

So there were so many factors which helped to cause this episode. Anyone would have likely prevented it.....properly checking in on the new frequency would have been the first one.....

A note about laptops.....in NWA's A.O.M (I think it stands for airman's operation manual), it does not say we can't use a laptop, however in Delta's A.O.M., it does, we are transitioning now and we actually have pages from both airlines. When our union showed this to the attorney's, they could not believe the confusion put on our pilot group. But, D.C. F.A.A. put out a new possible ruling which will disallow all laptops......so stupid, don't they know Jet Blue has laptops on every aircraft and soon all airliners will for the electronic Jepp charts.

These are the facts and again, Tim said he feels very bad for the company and the pilots and is hoping for a positive outcome on their appeal. With 24 years at NWA, 21,000 blemish free hours, it would be a mistake to ruin his career over this in my opinion.

Thank you,

Mike

F.A.A. Fails to brief new controller on duty (WSJ Article)

Comments

[Patrick Flannigan]

I'd be skeptical of the authenticity of this "thrice forwarded" email, but even if it is a fake, the explanation sounds very reasonable.

However, I can't quite understand how / why the crew managed to pass MSP. We are typically filed along a STAR which has a few turns and dog-legs in it. Even if I am completely engaged in some other activity (such as briefing or preparing an approach), I still take notice that the airplane is making a turn which prompts my eyes to check our position just to make sure it's supposed to be doing that...

[Mikecoster]

I am so not buying this story. While it may have come from one of the actual pilots, it was reworked heabily, and the audio and radar evidence do not match. If they are proven to be lying, hopefully the case gets turned over the the US Attorney for criminal prosecution. Careless piloting, sleeping, keyboarding in the cockpit is one thing. Lying in a safety investigation of a public carrier is another thing entirely.

Mike

[Fred]

Situational awareness is not an option when flying an aircraft -- especially with paying passengers in the back. In the days before GPS (or even LORAN), I used every receiver in my panel to cross-check my position. If the posting is a "reasonable" explanation, how does a pilot in command become so detached from his duties to lose sight not just of his position, but of the *need* to know the position of the aircraft?

It sounds as if we have some severe underlying issues with pilot attentiveness. Perhaps this new breed of aviators would prefer that folks on the ground control their aircraft?

Richard Cole and Tim Cheney have performed a disservice to professional pilots.

[Tom Stephens]

What an incredible twist. What sent up the big red flag was the fact that two, not one, but two C&C authorities made major mistakes. The cockpit crew and the ATC Denver crew. I'm very reluctant to believe this story without further investigation.

[Conrad]

This story sounds like BS. Even if they were on the wrong frequency they should have noticed something was wrong when ATC was calling itself Winnepeg Center rather than Denver Center. Also, how do they explain away the fact that company was trying to reach them on a descreet frequency? Also, there is no such thing as a NASAP Report, it's a NASA Form. These guys fell asleep and the FAA was right to revoke their certs.

[Tom]

Conrad, there is a NASAP report. At Northwest/Delta it's used to file reports if something safety-related happens during the flight.

[MsLynn]

I for one DO NOT BELIEVE this BS story is just that total BS and I do believe that their certs should have been pulled and if it is found out that they are lying the govt. should THROW the BOOK at them and not let this get swept under the carpet. Just my .02 worth.....

[Buffalo Bob]

Read it for yourself:

FAA Charges

http://www.avweb.com/pdf/nwa188_pilots-revocation-letter.pdf

NWA188 Crew Response to FAA Charges

http://www.avweb.com/pdf/nwa188_pilotappeals.pdf