By Mark Memmott

It wasn't until the jet was on the ground Wednesday night at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport that the passengers knew it had flown 150 miles out its way and that fighter jets had been on standby in case Flight 188 from San Diego had been hijacked.

And as passenger Scott Kennedy tells The Star Tribune, "when you hear that fighter jets were ready to scramble, that just gets you really mad."

There were 149 people on board.

Federal investigators are now trying to figure out what happened. The pilot and co-pilot blame a heated discussion they were having about airline policy for distracting them and leading to a detour over Wisconsin. Investigators will be looking into whether the crew might have fallen asleep instead, The Wall Street Journal reports. Cockpit recordings should help solve the mystery.

Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general at the federal Department of Transportation, has told the Associated Press that she suspects the pilots were asleep -- "unless it was one heck of an argument."

The Pioneer Press says that "the pilots, who weren't named, have been 'relieved from active flying' during the investigation, said a spokesman for Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, which acquired Eagan-based Northwest last year."

Update at 2:20 p.m. ET: Only the last 30 minutes of cockpit conversation were recorded, investigators say.

Update at 8:55 a.m. ET. Schiavo also answered a question that many folks are probably asking -- what if the pilots were asleep and the jet was headed toward a collision? She says alarms would have started blaring and an automatic control system would have taken evasive action:

categories: Travel

7:15 - October 23, 2009

What is this?

Share