Those two Northwest Airlines pilots lost their licenses for good reason. The FAA was no more sympathetic than a clerk at the check-in counter confronted with an overweight bag. The two pilots suffered a stiff penalty because they did not follow elemental rules and they put lives at risk.

No excuse they have offered or eventually concoct as part of an appeal will trump the fact they were out of contact with air traffic controllers for 91 minutes. The nature of their distraction is irrelevant. Conversations, laptops or who knows what, they could not be bothered to respond to the attempts to rouse them. Worse yet, they might have turned off all the devices to get their attention.

No arguments work in their favor. They wanted to be left alone for their own purposes. The route was obviously considered to be such a milk run, they could ignore the outside world. Meanwhile that outside world was panicked enough to consider scrambling planes to challenge the silent aircraft.

The FAA yanked two licenses as punishment, and provide a taste of lash for others. Good.