Did Laptops, Not Napping, Distract Northwest 188's Pilots?

October 26, 2009 at 3:30 pm PT

The latest possible reason that Northwest Flight 188 overshot its destination by more than 100 miles is that the pilots were distracted by their laptop PCs, The Journal reported Monday.

According to people familiar with the interviews held over the weekend between the pilots and the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilots said the snafu occurred as they were discussing work schedules over their laptops.

It’s not unheard of for members of a flight crew to pull out a personal computer during quiet periods of a flight, but investigators are still considering whether fatigue played a role, since the pilots didn’t respond to air-traffic controllers for more than 75 minutes.

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Tagged with: air-traffic controllers, Andrew LaVallee, digital, Digits, fatigue, Flight 188, frontpage, hardware, investigators, laptops, National Transportation Safety Board, Northwest Airlines, PCs, The Wall Street Journal

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