WASHINGTON (AP) -- Were the pilots distracted? Catching up on their sleep? Federal lath struggled to determine what the aggregation associates of a Northwest Airlines jetliner were accomplishing at 37,000 feet as they sped 150 afar accomplished their Minneapolis destination and military jets readied to hunt them. Unfortunately, the cockpit articulation recorder may not acquaint the tale.
A report appear backward Friday said the pilots passed breathalyzer tests and were atoning afterwards Wednesday night's amazing odyssey. They said they had been having a heated discussion about airline policy. But aviation assurance experts and added pilots were frankly skeptical they could accept become so consumed with shop talk that they forgot to acreage an airplane carrying 144 passengers.
The most acceptable possibility, they said, is that the pilots artlessly fell asleep about along their avenue from San Diego.
"It certainly is a believable explanation," said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va.
One of the two pilots, aboriginal administrator Richard I. Cole, said that wasn't the case.
"I can assure you none of us was asleep," Cole told ABC News. He declined to animadversion added except to say, "I am not accomplishing actual good."
New recorders retain as much as two hours of cockpit chat and added noise, but the earlier archetypal aboard Northwest's Flight 188 includes aloof the aftermost 30 account - alone the actual end of Wednesday night's flight afterwards the pilots realized their error over Wisconsin and were heading back to Minneapolis.
They had aureate through the night with no ackn! owledgme nt as air cartage controllers in two states and pilots of added planes over a advanced swath of the mid-continent approved to get their attention by radio, abstracts message and cell phone. On the ground, anxious officials alerted National Guard jets to go afterwards the airliner from two locations, though none of the military planes got off the runway.
With worries about terrorists still high, alike afterwards acquaintance was re-established, air cartage controllers asked the aggregation to prove who they were by executing turns.
"Controllers accept a acute sense of acuity back we're not able to talk to an aircraft. That's the absoluteness post-9/11," said Doug Church, a agent for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
A report appear by airport badge Friday identified Cole and the flight's captain, Timothy B. Cheney. The report said the men were "cooperative, atoning and appreciative" and volunteered to booty preliminary breath tests that were zero for booze use. The report additionally said the lead flight attendant told badge she was unaware of any incident during the flight.
The pilots, both briefly suspended, are to be interviewed by NTSB lath next week. The airline, acquired aftermost year by Delta Air Lines, is additionally investigating. Messages larboard at both men's homes were not immediately returned.
The FAA said Friday letters had been sent allegorical the pilots they are actuality investigated by the agency and it is accessible their pilot's licenses could be suspended or revoked.
Investigators don't apperceive whether the pilots may accept collapsed asleep, but National Transportation Safety Board agent Keith Holloway said Friday that fatigue and cockpit aberration will be looked into. The plane's flight recorders were brought to the board's Washington headquarters.
Voss, the Flight Safety Foundati! on presi dent, said a special concern was that the many assurance checks built into the aviation arrangement to prevent incidents like this one - or to correct them bound - apparently were abortive until the actual end. Not alone couldn't air cartage controllers and added pilots accession the Northwest pilots for an hour, but the airline's dispatcher should accept been trying to reach them as well. The three flight associates onboard should accept questioned why there were no affairs for landing actuality made. Brightly lit cockpit displays should accept warned the pilots it was time to land. Despite cloudy conditions, the lights of Minneapolis should accept clued them in that they'd reached their destination.
"It's apparently article you would say never would happen if this hadn't aloof happened," Voss said.
The pilots were finally alerted to their situation back a flight attendant alleged on an intercom from the cabin. Two pilots flying in the vicinity were additionally finally able to accession the Northwest pilots application a Denver cartage control radio abundance instead of the local Minneapolis frequency.
On the ground, badge and FBI agents prepared for the worst.
"When the aircraft taxied to the aboideau I was able to see the two white males in the seats of the flight crew, both were cutting uniforms consistent with Delta flight crew," said a badge report, active by an Officer Starch. "When the aircraft had stopped, the male built-in in the pilot seat turned, looked at me and gave me two thumbs up and shook his arch advertence all was OK."
Air cartage controllers in Denver had been in acquaintance with the pilots as they flew over the Rockies, FAA backer Laura Brown said. But as the alike got closer to Minneapolis, she said, "the Denver center approved to acquaintance the flight but couldn't get anyone."
Denver controllers notified their counterparts ! in Minne apolis, who additionally approved to reach the aggregation after success, Brown said.
Officials suspect Flight 188's radio might still accept been tuned to a abundance used by Denver controllers alike though the alike had aureate above their reach, said Church, the agent for the National Air Traffic Controllers Union. Controllers worked throughout the incident with the pilots of added planes, asking them to try to accession Flight 188 application the Denver frequency, he said
Passenger Lonnie Heidtke said he didn't notice annihilation abnormal before the landing except that the alike was late.
The flight associates "did say there was a adjournment and we'd accept to orbit or article to that aftereffect before we got back. They really didn't say we overflew Minneapolis. ... They implied it was aloof a business-as-usual delay," said Heidtke, a consultant with a supercomputer consulting aggregation based in Bloomington, Minn.
Once on the ground, the alike was met by badge and FBI agents. Passengers retrieving their baggage from aerial bins were asked by flight associates sit down, Heidtke said. An airport badge administrator and a couple added people came on lath and stood at the cockpit door, talking to the pilots, he said.
"I did jokingly alarm my wife and say, 'This is the aboriginal time I've seen the badge meet the plane. Maybe they're going to arrest the pilots for actuality so late.' Maybe I was right," Heidtke said.
Delta said Friday it plans to accord flight vouchers worth a few hundred dollars to each of the passengers.
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AP Airlines Writer Joshua Freed and AP Writers Steve Karnowski and Amy Forliti in Minneapolis, Dave Koenig in Dallas and Harry Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
FlightAw! are.com tracking of Northwest Flight 188: http://bit.ly/2QV9hX
National Transportation Safety Board http://www.ntsb.gov
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