"Overshoot" Pilot Denies Napping

The first officer of the Northwest Airlines flight that overshot its destination by 150 miles before reversing course has denied, among other things, napping on duty. Of course, since the flight overshot the Minneapolis airport by 150 miles, it wouldn't have been just the pilot, but the co-pilot who napped, but that's obvious.

First officer / co-pilot Richard Cole would not say just what it was that led to the flight, Flight 188 from San Diego to Minneapolis, overshooting their mark. He indicated that there was no argument, and no napping, for neither he nor Captain Timothy B. Cheney.

Tbat doesn't explain why the flight was out of contact for more than an hour Wednesday night, as air traffic controllers and pilots tried to contact Cole and Cheney, using radio, cell phone and data messages. Meanwhile, as is SOP in this post-911 world, officials alerted National Guard jets to prepare to chase the airliner, though none of the fighters took off. However, air traffic controllers asked the crew to prove who they were by executing turns once contact was re-established.

Unfortunately, the cockpit voice recorder on Flight 188 may not help resolve the mystery. The older model aboard Northwest's Flight 188 includes just the last 30 minutes of Wednesday night's flight, that portion after the pilots realized their error over Wisconsin and headed back to Minneapolis. More modern cockpit voice recorders store as much as two hours of information.

Cheney and Cole have been suspended and are to be interviewed by National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators. Northwest Airlines, acquired last year by Delta Air Lines, is also investigating.