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Northwest Airlines Flight 188

N374NW, the Airbus A320 used for Flight 188
Incident
Date	October 21, 2009
Summary	Pilot error and distraction
Site	Minnesota
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Airbus A320-212
Operator	Northwest Airlines
Registration	N374NW
Flight origin	San Diego International Airport
Destination	Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport
Occupants	149
Passengers	144
Crew	5
Fatalities	0
Injuries	0
Survivors	149

Northwest Airlines Flight 188 was a regularly scheduled flight from San Diego, California, to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, on October 21, 2009, which overshot its destination by more than 150 miles (240 km) because of pilot error. During the event, air traffic control lost contact with the flight for approximately 75 minutes. The flight later landed in Minneapolis/St Paul International Airport over an hour past its scheduled arrival.

As a result of the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revoked the pilot certificates of the involved pilots and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued recommendations for changes to air traffic control procedures and the rules for cockpit crew. The incident also caused American lawmakers to move to prevent pilots on U.S. airliners from using personal electronic devices while taxiing or flying.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was an Airbus A320-212, registered as N374NW, serial number 1646. It was delivered to Northwest Airlines in December 2001. The aircraft was equipped with two CFM International CFM56-5A3 engines.

Incident

The Airbus A320 took off from San Diego International Airport at 5:01 p.m. CDT (3:01 pm in San Diego). It was scheduled to land at 8:01 p.m. CDT. Just under two hours after takeoff, at 6:56 p.m. CDT, Air Traffic Control lost radio contact with the aircraft while it was over Denver.

During the flight, Denver ARTCC (where contact was lost) instructed the pilots to contact the Minneapolis ARTCC as the aircraft was leaving Denver's airspace. However, the pilots did not do so. Both the Denver and Minneapolis ARTCC made several unsuccessful attempts to reach the pilots. At the request of the Minneapolis ARTCC, Northwest's dispatchers made at least eight attempts to reach the pilots and urge them to reestablish radio contact, without success. When other pilots in the area got word of the situation, they tried to help the controllers, attempting to reach the pilots as well. Northwest also sent them a radio text message, which went unanswered. Authorities were concerned enough that NORAD readied fighter jets to check on the welfare of the plane. Officials at the White House Situation Room were alerted as well.

Just as the fighter jets were about to scramble, air traffic control at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport reestablished radio contact with the plane at 8:14 p.m. CDT, by which time the flight was over Eau Claire, Wisconsin, roughly 100 miles (160 km) east of Minneapolis. Captain Timothy Cheney and first officer Richard Cole said that they were not aware of their location until a flight attendant asked them what time they were due to land. The overshoot concerned air traffic controllers enough that they had the pilots perform a series of maneuvers to confirm the pilots were in control of the plane, as well as to verify that the transponder target they were receiving on their radar was indeed Flight 188. The aircraft finally landed, over an hour late, at 9:04 p.m. CDT.

Investigation

During the investigation, Cheney and Cole told National Transportation Safety Board investigators that they were going over schedules using their laptop computers—a serious breach of piloting fundamentals, as well as a violation of Delta Air Lines policy (Delta had recently merged with Northwest). The pilots denied suggestions from some aviation safety experts that they had fallen asleep. The cockpit voice recorder retains only the last 30 minutes of audio after being powered off and thus audio recordings were not available for the complete duration of the flight's loss of radio contact.

Findings

On October 27, 2009, the FAA revoked the licenses of both pilots. The incident and subsequent investigation have led to some changes in the rules for cockpit crew and air traffic controllers. One issue of particularly concern was the over an hour long delay from the time air traffic controllers realized the plane was out radio contact until an alert on the Domestic Events Network (DEN) was created and NORAD was informed of the situation. The commander of NORAD, General Gene Renuart Jr., said in an interview that ideally an alert is created within 10 minutes of losing contact and if they had been alerted in time, fighter jets would have been scrambled to intercept. An updated FAA notice effective November 10, 2010, called for an alert to be made within five minutes of last recorded radio contact.

References

1. Ahlers, Mike (March 5, 2010). "Pilots who overflew airport drop attempt to keep licenses". CNN. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
2. ^ "NTSB Says Northwest Pilots' Distraction led to Overflight of Minneapolis, Notes ATC Shortcomings; Issues Recommendations on ATC Procedures" (Press release). National Transportation Safety Board. March 18, 2010. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
3. "Northwest Flight 188 Pilots Will Not Get Their Jobs Back". Aero-News Network. June 17, 2010. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
4. "Incident Airbus A320-212 N374NW". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
5. "Northwest Airlines 188 (NWA188) flight track". Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
6. ^ "FAA releases recordings of wayward jet". CNN. November 27, 2009.
7. ^ FAA letter revoking Cheney's license
8. ^ "NTSB: Wayward pilots were working on laptops". NBC News. Associated Press. October 26, 2009.
9. "Cockpit Voice Recorder 12 - Specialist's Factual Report" (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. December 15, 2009. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
10. "Pilots of wayward jet lose licenses". CNN. October 27, 2009.
11. "NORAD out of loop in NWA snafu". ABC News. October 29, 2009.
12. "Domestic Events Network (DEN) Reporting Requirements" (PDF). Federal Aviation Administration.
13. Wald, Matthew L. (November 13, 2009). "Controllers Were Slow to Notify Defense Command of Errant Jet". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.

External links

• Northwest Airlines flight leads to probe of pilot professionalism
• The inside story of Northwest 188 plus, Congress gets it right, for once: Tough new hiring rules for airlines and pilots
• Analyst of the incident and review of the ANSV Final Report by a commercial aircraft pilot and training captain on YouTube

National Transportation Safety Board

• Full NTSB docket including:
  • Submission of Delta Air Lines To the National Transportation Safety Board
  • Submission of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association Regarding the Incident Involving Northwest 188
  • Project Information

v t e Northwest Airlines (Northwest Orient)
History	Accidents & incidents Flight 2 (1938) Flight 1 (1939) Flight 5 (1941) Flight 4422 (1948) Flight 421 (1948) Flight 307 (1950) Flight 2501 (1950) Flight 2 (1956) Flight 710 (1960) Flight 1-11 (1960) Flight 706 (1962) Flight 705 (1963) Flight 293 (1963) Flight 305 (1971) Flight 6231 (1974) Flight 255 (1987) Flight 5 (1990) Flights 1482 and Flight 299 (1990) Flight 85 (2002) Flight 327 (2004) Flight 188 (2009) Flight 253 (2009)
Destinations	List of Northwest Airlines destinations
Category

• Accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A320
• Airliner accidents and incidents in Minnesota
• Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 2009
• Northwest Airlines accidents and incidents
• Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error
• October 2009 events in the United States
• 2009 in Minnesota