Did any Northwest Airlines Frequent Flyers* on board the plane get extra miles?

A Northwest Airlines flight approaching Minneapolis Wednesday night lost contact with controllers for more than an hour and overshot its destination by about 150 miles before circling back to land. Federal safety regulators are investigating the incident as a possible case of pilots nodding off, according to government and airline-industry officials familiar with the matter.

Controllers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport were able to re-establish contact with the Airbus A320, after a one hour and 18 minute lapse, before the plane, flight 188 en route from San Diego, landed safely and without injuries to the 147 passengers, according to a statement from the National Transportation Safety Board.

The NTSB said controllers lost contact with the aircraft while it was cruising at 37,000 feet, but didn’t say how far from the airport the plane was at the time.

The NTSB said the pilots were interviewed after landing by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and airport police. The pilots told law- enforcement officials they had been engaged in a “heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness,” according to the NTSB. The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating the incident.- Wall Street Journal

What kind of airline policy discussion so distract you from the duties you’re performing? The FAA ‘Sterile cockpit’ regulation requires flight crews to refrain from non-essential activities at certain times during flight. Like when they are supposed to be landing the A-320.

These pilots, who are in serious danger of losing their jobs,  may also have been asleep. The cockpit voice recorder, which will be analyzed by the NTSB, will probably what really happened on this flight.

*- I was a Northwest FF from 1994 to 2002. From 1997 to 2001 I flew nearly 400,000 flight miles and was either a Northwest Gold or Platinum FF for that entire period. I made at least 25 trips to California over those years, in addition to trips to Switzerland, England, Poland, Hong Kong, Japan plus three to The Philippines.

The best benefit of being a high class FF, is the free upgrades to First Class on domestic flights if seats were available. I knew how to schedule my west coast trips and only once between the summer of 97 and Jan. 2002 did I ever not an upgrade.

Based on my flying experience with Northwest, I’m guessing most of the passengers on board the above plane were making connections. The odds are good they missed their next flights, which caused the airline quite a bit of money. Another reason these pilots are likely to lose their jobs.