Are we all shocked to hear that (possibly) the pilots of the Northwest airliner that flew 150 miles past their Minneapolis destination, were snoozing?? I certainly am. Of all the years of air traveling across the country and out of the country that I did when I was younger, it never once occurred to me that my pilots may be sleeping while I sat gripping the armrests and gazing out the window at the clouds below me. If they did and I had found out, would it have bothered me? Would I possibly have raised a horrendous fuss? I think--no, I
KNOW,---that I most certainly would have!
Traveling by air is supposed to be the safest mode of transportation; just by the mere fact of numbers-air craft accidents/versus automobile accidents. You could argue that planes have autopilot'; automobiles do not. Planes have flight plans that normally keep them out of the paths of other planes; automobiles do not. All these facts did not necessarily make me feel much better when I boarded my flight-my thinking being, that if my plane goes down, I would have a 99.9% chance that I am going to die. If I crash my car, my chance of dying doesn't seem to be quite so high.
The pilots (at least, not that I know about yet) have not admitted that they were napping. But what other explanation could there be for
no one answering the radio, cell phones, stewardesses pounding on the cockpit door, or any other types of communication for over an hour!? I'm no aviation expert, but I don't buy it! It's kinda' like saying,
"we were snatched up by aliens and dropped back in the plane an hour later." Actually, I think they've denied sleeping, but I haven't heard what they are saying that they were doing during this lapse of quiet' time.
I would think that it would make more sense that, if they were sleeping, it would be better in the long run to admit that they were sleeping; rather than give the impression that they were awake, but just ignoring all the frantic terror that they were causing on the ground!
Another 911 !!!???? Fighter pilots being put on alert to possibly have to shoot the plane out of the air-does that not run shivers down your spine!?
I'm all for pilots getting a catnap if necessary, but at least
one pilot should be awake at all times when they are piloting a plane. Many pilots say that it is not unusual for a pilot to take a nap while the co-pilot flies the plane and that's all well and good; but it would appear that on this flight, the only ones awake were the stewardesses and maybe some of the passengers. I think I'll call the airport and get my flight changed to Delta.
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