Comments on: Airline Pilots’ Excuses: Oh Come On!

By: Janet

Janet — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:02:56 +0000

My Dad was a Navy pilot in WWII. Stationed in the Phillipines late in the war, the pilots often flew insane lenghts of time, and with 4 hrs “sleep”, took off again, to recon. One pilot my Dad remembered very well woke up from a “nap” (on the ground), and his hair had gone white. True story.
So you can see why I wanted to commit violent acts on these two jerks who overflew Minneapolis and made lame excuses.

By: David Tinney

David Tinney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:50:36 +0000

Julie…what sordid things can two pilots be doing on their laptops at 40,000 ft? If they had an internet connection….I can only imagine!

By: wwds

wwds — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:41:24 +0000

David—exactly right. It is the lie that is the thing. checking our schedules on our laptops..puh-lease.

By: wwds

wwds — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:40:16 +0000

Ok Julie…I’ll bite. What did you think they were doing???
Good points by the way.

By: Julie O'Malley

Julie O'Malley — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:33:06 +0000

Sorry — make that “… than being distracted on their laptops.” (Point being, “asleep” is the least damaging scenario.)

By: Julie O'Malley

Julie O'Malley — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:31:18 +0000

You’re right, GL. If they’d just admitted to falling asleep, the debate would quickly have shifted away from those two pilots personally, and become more about how to make a better protocol so pilots DON’T fall asleep. As you say, we can all relate to being a sleepy driver.

By making up implausible excuses, they’ve forced us to use our imaginations to guess what they were really doing. It had to be something pretty danged mesmerizing! I can think of several scenarios that are both far more plausible — and far more sordid — than being asleep.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

By: David Tinney

David Tinney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:45:14 +0000

Its inexcusable for anyone to lie. Yeah, we let the mechanic down the street who works on our car get by with it. But airline pilots, no way do we let these two off the hook. They should have their feet held to the fire until they tell the truth.

I’m the first guy in line to offer mercy and a second chance. But our two sleeping beauties had way too much responsibility in their hands to be given another chance. Their pilot’s license should be eternally revoked.

Last thought. I get sleepy when I drive long distance and with a jet on autopilot, I bet they did, too. Had they told the truth in the beginning, I would have respect for them for ‘fessing up. But, since they lied to cover their mistake, they revealed their true character and they lost all respect.

By: wwds

wwds — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:45:54 +0000

Conrad, yep.
Someone asked me if I knew what they were doing in the cockpit. They were sleeping and determined that an outrageous lie would be better than the public knowing that pilots get bored and catch a few winks, with the autopilot on. Know how sleepy you get in the car when your passenger sleeps on a cross country trip, same same. Well, not quite…I guess there are no guard rails up at 40,000 feet.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:03:42 +0000

GL, it is even more glaring when juxtaposed to the dignity and competence of Sully. When you are good … you don’t have to lie.

By: wwds

wwds — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:43:04 +0000

Ed. Note: I am re-purposing this to make my real point, which might be too subtle. As stupid, even dangerous as overhooting your destination by 150 miles, is…plus the danger to passengers and so forth, is the ease of the lie. Not only is it becoming easy to lie, no one really cares about the dogatemyhomework nature of the lie. We can do better? More creativity, know what I mean?
I only hope that lying does not work itself from the cockpit down to the maintenance hanger..”yeah, boss, I checked that jet engine completely —should be good to go.”