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Off-target pilots' licenses are in peril

The White House situation room was put on alert when Northwest Flight 188 overshot the Twin Cities last week.

By LIZ ROBBINS and MATTHEW L. WALD , New York Times

Last update: October 24, 2009 - 9:05 PM

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Saturday that it might suspend the licenses of the two Northwest Airlines pilots who flew 150 miles past their Twin Cities destination Wednesday evening -- remaining out of contact for nearly 90 minutes -- while air traffic controllers repeatedly tried in vain to reach them.

Four military fighter jets were put on alert. Air traffic control centers from Denver to Minneapolis tried numerous times to reach the pilots by radio, e-mail, data text and cell phone, with one center trying to contact the pilots 13 times. Even the White House was alerted to the wayward Flight 188. Finally, a flight attendant contacted the pilots, and they turned the plane around and landed safely at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

A spokeswoman for the FAA, Laura Brown, said her agency had sent "letters of investigation" to both pilots, Capt. Timothy B. Cheney and first officer Richard I. Cole, notifying them that the incident could lead to the emergency revocation or suspensions of their licenses within days.

Initially, Cole and Cheney told federal investigators they were in a heated discussion over airline policy and lost track of where they were. Aviation analysts, puzzled by the unusually long gap of silence, wondered whether the pilots could have been sleeping. But Cole denied that and made comments that added to the confusion.

"We were not asleep, we were not having an argument or fighting," Cole told the Oregonian newspaper. Calls to his Salem, Ore., home were not immediately returned on Friday and Saturday. Cheney, of Gig Harbor, Wash., also did not return calls.

"It was not a serious event from a safety standpoint," Cole went on to say. He added cryptically to the Associated Press: "I would tell you more, but I've already told you way too much."

Cole told the Oregonian that when the investigation is completed, "it's going to be innocuous."

But the event was considered serious enough for the White House' situation room to monitor the plane.

Brown said the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) would conduct joint interviews this weekend with Cole and Cheney. "The interviews may take place as early as [today] but more than likely early next week," NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said in an e-mail Saturday.

The two pilots have already been suspended by Delta Airlines, which merged with Northwest last year and operates its flights. The pilots, flying from San Diego to the Twin Cities with 144 passengers and three flight attendants on board, stopped communicating with air traffic controllers at some point east of Denver.

Delta is offering each passenger on the flight a $500 voucher for future travel on the airline, Chris Kelly, a spokeswoman for Delta in Atlanta, said Saturday.

Delta had not planned to make a formal announcement of the voucher offer and instead began contacting the passengers on Friday, Kelly said. It was not immediately clear if there were any limitations on the use of the vouchers.

Kelly said the vouchers will be sent to the passengers along with a letter from Delta, but the content of the letter was not immediately available.

Staff writer Steve Alexander and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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