Northwest Pilots Were on Wrong Frequency, Browsing Laptops

I doubt we'll ever get the truth from these boneheads, but the NTSB today released a report trying to piece together what the heck was going on during that flight that shot past Minneapolis back in October.

The pilots of a Northwest Airlines flight that overshot the Twin Cities by at least 100 miles were listening to the wrong frequency for part of the flight and discussed company policy for about 15 minutes while looking at laptops, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report released this morning.

The report shed details on what happened during the Oct. 21 flight from San Diego to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and includes interviews with the pilots and the flight attendants. The report says the pilots were listening to the Winnipeg frequency, instead of the one for Minneapolis. It also said they did not hear the numerous requests to contact them.

The pilots said they never slept during the flight as had been initially speculated.

About 400 pages of investigative materials were made public this morning regarding the Flight 188, which flew past its Twin Cities destination and was out of communication with air-traffic controllers for 77 minutes.

The pilots told investigators they became distracted when they were looking at the company's new scheduling policy on personal laptops -- a violation of company policy.

The Federal Aviation Administration has revoked the licenses of Capt. Timothy Cheney, 53, of Gig Harbor, Wash., and First Officer Richard Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore., saying they acted "carelessly and recklessly."

In a related development, each pilot on the flight gave himself a B+ on how he handled the trip.