Go! Pilot looses contact w/ ATC for 25 mins..No jets scrambled.

Im surprised nobody here picked up on this story here. When I saw it though I thought here we go another glaring post 9/11 oddity. Pilots fall asleep on a commercial flight and dont respond to ATC for 25mins and even over fly there airport the were supposed to land at. You'd think this would be a good case to at least get someone up there to see what was going on. Link to story below.

blogs.usatoday.com...

By the time the fighters got there, they would have woken up, turned around, and landed. It's a 45 minute flight from Oahu to the Big Island. If an F-15 tried to make the flight on afterburner the whole time they wouldn't have the fuel to get there, or they'd run out on the way back. Not to mention there's no word on whether the fighters were launched or not.

Doesn't this just go to show that we have learned and done nothing since 9/11 to stop it from happening again? Sorry for one line.

reply to post by Stillresearchn911



Well, loose contact is better than none.

Maybe they didn't fall asleep but just lost interest?

Good report, though.

reply to post by Griff


I suppose it is possible that the military could have had a jet in route or even following, if they were in the area at the time.
There was no reason to do anything hasty at that time and therefore no reason to get "involved".
I know I wouldn't enjoy flying much if I read a military spokesman say, "oh, yeah, we were ready to shoot it down if they didn't get any word from the pilots in the next 5 minutes, so don't worry, we learned our 9/11 lesson."...
I think I might be a little concerned that, a) short flight and falling asleep
b) short flight and both pilots sleeping and c) was the auto pilot on? is that normal for short flight?

It's a short flight, but the pilots routinely make it 7 or 8 times in a day. They fly MANY flights every day before they're done for the day. Autopilots are used on pretty much EVERY flight anymore, so yes, that's standard.

Mesa is the Walmart of the sky. They work their pilots to the bone with a horrible contract and pay, usually on min rest. What is min rest you say? 8 hours. But that is not 8 hours in bed. That is 8 hours from block in (getting into the gate at destination +15 mins usually) till showtime next morning (showing up 1 hour before departure at gate the next day). Pilots are lucky to get 6 hours sleep on a min rest night, to fly 6-8 legs the next day as shown above. Thats a long day on min rest.

Now i dont know the particulars of this flight, and i will not monday morning QB as many others do... but the above is something to keep in mind when viewing such articles.


Mesa is an accident waiting to happen.

Do a search for Mesa and Go! here forums.flightinfo.com... to see how Mesa pilots are treated by their company and how other pilots treat Mesa and Go!


typo

[edit on 1-4-2008 by johndoex]