No one was snoozing in cockpit, NWA pilot says

To most appearances, they seemed to be asleep.

But judging from their schedule, they should have been wide awake.

The two pilots at the helm of the Northwest Airlines flight that baffled air controllers -- first by going without radio contact for more than an hour and then by overshooting the Minneapolis airport by 150 miles -- were beginning what was to be a five-day flying stint. They started Tuesday with a flight from the Twin Cities to San Diego that was scheduled to land about 8 p.m., then had a 19-hour layover before their return flight Wednesday to the Twin Cities, airline records show.

The pair's flying schedule was outlined in an internal Northwest document described to the Star Tribune.

Authorities are not expected to draw conclusions about the actions of pilot Timothy B. Cheney, 53, of Gig Harbor, Wash., and first officer Richard I. Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore., until next week at the earliest. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is in the process of scheduling interviews with the pilots.

The pilots told law officers who met the plane late Wednesday when it landed in Minneapolis that they were involved in a protracted conversation and lost track of their position.

"I can assure you none of us was asleep," Cole told ABC News on Friday.

In an interview with the Associated Press from his home in Salem, Ore., Cole said the incident "was not a serious event from a safety issue."

"I would tell you more, but I've already told you way too much," he said.

In another development today, a White House spokesman told the Associated Press that the White House Situation Room monitored the incident and notified senior White House officials about the plane and they closely monitored the situation. The official did not say if President Obama was informed.

The case of Flight 188 has baffled observers since it first flew onto the nation's radar.

Some pilots and aviation experts have said that it is hard to imagine how the pilots could go so long without responding to what were increasingly desperate attempts to contact them in the air.

There were at least 13 attempts to contact the plane, according to one source.

They also questioned how the pair could have failed to realize that they had flown so far beyond their destination.

Cole would not discuss with the AP why it took so long for the pilots to respond to radio calls, "but I can tell you that airplanes lose contact with the ground people all the time. It happens. Sometimes they get together right away; sometimes it takes awhile before one or the other noticesthat they are not in contact."

Whatever the case, a 'gross error'

"It's similar to other incidents in the past where the crews have overflown, and someone eventually wakes them up and they say, 'Oh man, we gotta get back and land somewhere,'" said Jim Higgins, a former pilot and professor with the aviation department at the University of North Dakota.

"And even if they were arguing and got into a heated debate, that's still a serious breach of navigation. This was a gross error," he said.

But after landing, Cheney hardly acted like a pilot who had triggered panic about a possible hijacking.

When the cockpit door was opened, Cheney turned in his seat, looked at the police officer and gave him the "thumbs-up and shook his head indicating that all was OK," according to a report released Friday.

Cheney and Cole were "cooperative, apologetic and appreciative," and submitted to a test that showed they had not been drinking, according to the airport police report.

Neither pilot responded to calls seeking comment from the Star Tribune.

Neighbors of Cheney described him as outgoing, hard working and meticulous.

Praise from neighbor

"He's a very responsible guy, so this just floors me," said Dorothy Wilson, who lives next door. "I would sing his praises above almost anyone. He is the best neighbor we have ever had."

Cheney, she said, makes it a point to check on them and invite them out of the house for boat rides, movies and other entertainment with his family. She called his yard a "showplace" that he takes care of himself.

No help from the recorder

On a different aircraft, the cockpit voice recorder might quickly settle the question of what the pilots were doing while they flew off-course and out of touch.

But the recorder on Flight 188 is an older model that retains only 30 minutes of information, running in a loop. It likely would reveal only what the two men were saying in the final half-hour before they landed.

"It captures information in 30-minute intervals -- loops -- and records again for another 30 minutes and so on and so on," NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said.

Newer recorder models capture two hours of cockpit activity, he said.

For Northwest -- now a part of Delta Air Lines -- and other big U.S. carriers, the Flight 188 black eye comes at a time when they are having a harder time filling seats. Recession-rocked leisure travelers are often going by car now, and business fliers are more scarce.

Add to that the fear that some customers might now have that their pilots may be getting more sleep in the cockpit than they are in coach.

Pilot fatigue is a more common problem within the airline industry than many passengers imagine. A NASA survey found that 80 percent of pilots from 26 regional airlines admitted to having "nodded off" at some point during a flight.

Working conditions are supposed to be better for the pilots who fly larger aircraft, but fatigue is a fact of life in the profession, said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, a group based near Washington.

Unforeseen things can happen

"You don't ever schedule pilots with the intention of driving them so hard that they need inflight rest, but in the real world, stuff happens -- delays, weather," he said.

Peter Goldreich of Shorewood, who was on Flight 188, said he has come to see an encounter he had with one of the pilots in a different light.

Goldreich said he and the pilot walked up to the gate in San Diego at the same time, only to learn that the flight had been delayed 25 minutes.

"He stated he wished he would have known so he could have stayed in his hotel longer," Goldreich said.

"I guess he could have slept more [if he had known]. He apparently got more on the plane," he said, laughing.

Staff writer Mary Jane Smetanka contributed to this report. tonyk@startribune.com • 612-673-7926 sziegler@startribune.com • 612-673-1707