Truly bizarre -- and upsetting. Makes you thankful these guys weren't in the cockpit of the US Airways Airbus that made the "water landing" in the Hudson in January...

Pilots missed Twin Cities by 150 miles _ but how?
By JOAN LOWY (AP) ? 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON ? Were the pilots distracted? Catching up on their sleep? Federal investigators struggled to determine what the crew members of a Northwest Airlines jetliner were doing at 37,000 feet as they sped 150 miles past their Minneapolis destination and military jets readied to chase them. Unfortunately, the cockpit voice recorder may not tell the tale.

A report released late Friday said the pilots passed breathalyzer tests and were apologetic after Wednesday night's amazing odyssey. They said they had been having a heated discussion about airline policy. But aviation safety experts and other pilots were frankly skeptical they could have become so consumed with shoptalk that they forgot to land an airplane carrying 144 passengers.

The most likely possibility, they said, is that the pilots simply fell asleep somewhere along their route from San Diego...

(For the rest of the story: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...vjYdQD9BH4FIG2


The Christian Science Monitor tells us this isn't the first time airline pilots have been caught napping -- or too engaged in cockpit conversation: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1024/p90s01-usgn.html

I hate airlines, they love to screw people over. I have flown basically once and my experience with airlines is they will bend you over every chance they get. They will probably charge these people extra for the extra time in the air.