November 2, 2007 11:05 AM
Attention passengers: would somebody in the front row please wake the pilots?
As if you needed one more reason never to fly the red-eye:
Two commercial pilots fell asleep on a red-eye flight to Denver and were hurtling towards DIA at twice the recommended speed.
The incident, in 2004, was reported anonymously by the captain on a federal Web site, report Ann Imse and John Ensslin.
The unnamed pilot of the "red eye" flight said he woke up to frantic calls from air traffic controllers and landed without a problem.The Web site is designed to improve safety by allowing such reports to be made with identifying information removed.
The alleged incident came up Wednesday during a congressional hearing on aviation safety. The airline is not named, but the report says the incident occurred on a Baltimore-Denver flight on an Airbus A319. Only United and Frontier flew those jets and that route at the time.
United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said the airline had no report of such an incident and added that United did not have a "red eye" flight between Baltimore and Denver at that time.
Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said his airline did have a "red eye" flight on the schedule but said the company could not find a report of the alleged incident on March 4, 2004.
Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn, mentioned the alleged incident in a House hearing.
The pilot said his schedule had been switched to three nights in a row of flying "red eye" flights. The eight-hour Denver- Baltimore round trip returned to Denver after 6 a.m.
Anybody have any red-eye horror stories? Or any other flying stories you like to scare us with?
November 2, 2007
1:10 PM
james writes:
I don't believe it. The cross country portions of piloting are dull, but arrive a major class B airport pilot's prepare arrival procedures from miles out. Similar to driving and approaching a major city. Your sense perk up, and you just don't fall asleep.
When I see the actual details and hear admissions by the pilot's I'll believe it, but until then it's just a scary news story than makes attention with headlines like "Hurtling towards DIA at twice the normal speed." That line is simply BS. Even if the pilot's were asleep and unable to communicate most likely the airliner was on auto pilot, and controllers could easily route other planes around it.
james http://www.futuregringo.com
November 2, 2007
1:41 PM
Mark Wolf writes:
Either way, I'm sleeping with one eye open on red-eye flights.
November 2, 2007
2:37 PM
shaggy writes:
What is up with pilots lately?
It wasn't enough for them to be flying us all around while intoxicated so they graduated up to flying loaded Nukes over our heads and now they will do it all while they are asleep.
November 2, 2007
9:20 PM
Anon writes:
This doesn't make much sense... I thought red eyes only went from west to east, where you would be arriving where the time zone is later. If the flight arrived in Denver at 6am, that would mean it would have to have left Baltimore at like 5am - I don't believe that airports are open at that hour except for international flights.
November 2, 2007
10:47 PM
pilot writes:
Heard about this soon after it happened. Red eye went DEN-BWI-DEN with a short layover in BWI.
Barely legal, but legal. The pilots fell asleep and missed the descent on the arrival into DEN, this got the attention of controllers, the crew didn't wake up until they had overflown DEN.
FAA sided with the crew as the scheduled trip was deemed unsafe due to 2 legs flown on the "back side of the clock" and the cumulative effect of doing such a trip several days in a row.
The question should be "whats up with airlines lately" as fierce competition forces this kind of scheduling. Witness Jet Blue's recent attempts to
get an exemption from minimum rest requirements for crews on transcontinental flights.
We've dedicated our lives to safety, since we're strapped into the same seats as everyone else.
Passengers only care about a cheap seat ... until theres an accident
November 3, 2007
10:07 AM
D Brown writes:
Major airports are open 24/7 and while "major airline" pilots enjoy unions and required rest periods and defined duty hours, corporate pilots do not.. Net Jets, Flex Jet, exec jet can all fly their pilots 24 hours straight legally!.. They have operating manuals that say they can't but in the real world and with blessing from the FAA any pilot operating under part 91 rules has no duty time or flight hour restrictions. The FAA relies on a pilots "common sense" not to fly when fatigued.. If a fortune 500 company with a big jet calls the pilots at 2 am to take a trip, guess what..If they don't? some other pilots will . When you have a family to feed and a mortgage to pay you do NOT tell your employer you are "too tired".. It's perfectly acceptable (and practiced) to allow one crewmember to nod off on a long flight. When neither pilot communicates that he's falling asleep, you have a potentially catastrophic situation. That's the real world
November 3, 2007
8:11 PM
Stand and wave writes:
30 years ago I was 50 miles east of Centennial around the Kiowa VOR and I almost had a midair with an IFR pilot passing through my altitude when he was approaching Centennial from the east. We were both legal and he wasn't looking out his windows because he was watching his instruments. Sure was fun going inverted to get out of his way.
20 years ago some clown flew into the traffic pattern at Tri-Country from Boulder.
I never knew I could turn that fast. He was cruising along Highway 7 and didn't notice the airport.
I've since quit flying and I'm quite content being a "ground pounder". The airline problems don't concern me and the problems with security are something you have to deal with. I drive, follow the rules and have a CCW. I'll deal with what comes along in my world. The horse comes out of training in two weeks.