Wayward Northwest pilots lose their licenses

MINNEAPOLIS — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Tuesday that it has revoked the licenses of the two Northwest Airlines pilots who overflew their destination airport last week while operating Flight 188 from San Diego to the Twin Cities.

The pilots — Capt. Timothy Cheney, 53, of Gig Harbor, and First Officer Richard Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore. — were out of contact with air traffic controllers for 91 minutes and told federal investigators they were distracted by conversation and use of their personal laptops. Air traffic controllers and airline officials repeatedly tried to reach them through radio and data contact, without success.

The emergency revocations cite violations of numerous federal aviation regulations. Those include failing to comply with air-traffic-control instructions and clearances, and operating carelessly and recklessly.

The revocations are effective immediately.

"You engaged in conduct that put your passengers and your crew in serious jeopardy," FAA regional counsel Eddie Thomas said in a letter to Cheney. Flight 188 was not in communications with controllers or the airline dispatchers "while you were on a frolic of your own. ... This is a total dereliction and disregard for your duties."

A similar letter was sent to Cole.

Phone messages left at the homes of the pilots were not immediately returned Tuesday.

The pilots said they were brought back to awareness when a flight attendant contacted them on the aircraft's intercom. By then, the Airbus A320 was over Wisconsin at 37,000 feet, about 150 miles past the destination. The pilots turned the plane with its 144 passengers around and landed safely in Minneapolis.

Cheney and Cole have 10 days to appeal the emergency revocations to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). They come less than a day after the union that represents the pilots scolded federal investigators for releasing "information to be sensationalized in the press" from the two aviators within days of the beginning of the inquiry.

In a statement released late Monday, Delta Master Executive Council Chairman Lee Moak said, "We do not condone the abandonment of due process that will result from a rush to judgment; instead we implore all interested parties to move with deliberate and unemotional professionalism as the events surrounding this incident are investigated."

The council is a branch of the larger Air Line Pilots Association, International.

The pilots said they lost track of time on the Oct. 21 flight while using their laptops to confer about airline scheduling procedures, the NTSB said Monday.

The pilots said they removed their headsets but were able to hear radio chatter, the NTSB said in a report of its initial findings. But it was not clear whether they ignored or didn't hear attempts to reach them.

Delta Air Lines, which operates Northwest, said "using laptops or engaging in activity unrelated to pilots' command of the aircraft during flight" is against airline policy, "and violations of that policy will result in termination."

The NTSB said it did not seize the laptops or examine them.

The pilots told investigators that they were not asleep during the time the plane was out of radio communication — and they confirmed a report that they had a 19-hour layover in San Diego before the flight.

Cheney and Cole were interviewed in the Minneapolis area on Sunday for a combined five hours, the NTSB said. Flight attendants were interviewed in Minnesota on Monday.

The pilots said there was "a concentrated period of discussion where they did not monitor the airplane or calls from [the air traffic controllers] even though both stated they heard conversation on the radio," the report said. And neither noticed messages that were sent by company dispatchers.

The pilots said they were at cruise altitude when they began discussing the new monthly crew-flight scheduling system in place because of the merger between Delta and Northwest. Cole was providing instruction to Cheney, the captain, the report said.

Pilots and aviation-safety experts said the episode is likely to cause the NTSB and the FAA to take a hard look at the use of laptops and other personal electronic devices in the cockpit.

There are no federal rules that specifically ban pilots' use of laptops or other personal electronic devices as long as the plane is flying above 10,000 feet, FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said.

Delta Air Lines, however, said in a statement that the use of laptops or engaging in activity unrelated to the pilots' command of the aircraft during flight is strictly against the airline's flight-deck policies. The airline said violations of that policy will result in termination.

One passenger, Lonnie Heidtke of Chippewa Falls, Wis., said he thought it was a stiff penalty for the pilots.

"I feel that the FAA pulling their license seems a little severe, I guess," Heidtke said. "But at the same time, I think they should not be flying airplanes at least for a while so they have an opportunity to think about this."