Pilots too busy with laptops to remember flight path, go 150 miles off course
By Ross Miller 
posted Oct 27th 2009 1:11AM
posted Oct 27th 2009 1:11AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
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How much do you want to bet it's porn?
Well, for once it's not about them being drunk.
I guess it deserve some kind of medal.
Yeah, I just googled "airline crew flight scheduling procedure.", that thing is freaking hot!
Pilots are horribly underpaid....they were probably looking at the want ads for a second or third job to pay the bills.
seriously...
they were on facebook.
Guys Guys...
it was Obviously Microsoft Flight Simulator!
oh right, I kind of overlooked the picture.
now i just feel dumb
"Pilots are horribly underpaid" ??
Fire fighters are horribly under paid.
School teachers are horribly underpaid.
A commercial pilot with over 20 years on the job makes up to about $150k. Horribly underpaid? I disagree.
------------------------------------------------
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Commercial_Pilot/Salary
I am horribly underpaid...
whats up Minneapolis!
All the pilots I know (two commercial, three FedEx and one UPS) are all of the opinion that the pilots were sleeping, not "distracted" as they claim. When you have a cockpit screaming at you with nav beacon warnings, automated nav system warnings, radio calls from multiple control towers, and text messages, there is no way in hell they could have been awake at the time.
They were watching "Lost"
I see what I did there. At least they didn't crash te plane
@ michael
yes I agree that many occupations are underpaid. But that payscale site is just a poll of 83 pilots. A pilot with 1-4 years exp. can ear between 26 and 66 thousand while a pilot with more than 20 years exp. can earn between 60 and 151 thousand.
I wish there was a better information out there but i guess the airline industry doesn't want knowledge of how much or little they pay out in the open.
read this one for another opinion
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/nyregion/17pilot.html
When I read about these two pilots, 'underpaid' is not the word that comes to mind.
me neither NHAnimator
I was just trying to say that maybe if it was a higher paying job more people would be entering the field and then airlines could choose to have the best pilots your money can buy.
who knows maybe these two wouldn't have jobs if that were they way it was or would be guaranteed that they'll never fly again, but more than likely they'll be fired and end up working for a discount or smaller company.
Being underpaid/overpaid depends on whether your a pilot for a Low Cost Carrier or a Legacy Carrier and whether your flying an A320 or a Boeing 777. If you work for a company like Jet Blue or Southwest, you are substituting a good corporate culture, for the higher paycheck.
High end:
Avg. for a Boeing 777 pilot: 78hrs a month and over 11 years of work is greater than $22,000 a month. Do the math and thats well over $250,000 a year.
Avg for a Airbus A320 (JetBlue) pilot: 80hrs per month and over 11 years of work (actually once you get over 5 years the pay does not increase) is $8,000 a month. Huge difference, but both get paid well.
Source: U.S. Airlines Salary Survey and Career Earnings Comparison
I heard they were sexing!
whole new meaning to Macbook Air....
all right, its microsoft flight simulator!
*nostalgia begins*
*sigh*
:3
Yeah, Flight Simulator screenshot FTW.
I can't even begin to wrap my head around this. I work in radio and it's practically the end of the world if I get distracted and have 3 seconds of dead-air... Now, if I were responsible for 300 lives and got so distracted that I went 150 miles PAST my airport - well, that just blows my mind. Can I assume these guys will lose their jobs?
Yeah... I hope they lose their jobs.
These pilots are the exact opposite of Captain Sully Sullenberger...
yup but even Sully Sullenberger testified that you can't recruit the best if you pay pilots horribly.
Corporate america always defends executive's high salaries by saying it's necessary to retain the best, but airlines pay their pilots poorly and cut their pensions.
No wonder pilots like Sully are a dying breed...
At the cruising speed of an A320 (564 miles an hour). they would have had to been distracted for 26 minutes - if they were actually traveling at cruising speed.
Ridiculous.
@calgaryalta:
Wow. I bet you must be a pilot! And from what I gathered from your repetitive comments, a horribly underpaid one at that. Maybe you should trade your $150k/yr + bonuses doing a job that operates itself 98% of the time for something better.
P.S: Are you by any chance flying a plane right now while you're reading this?
@ Richard S.
lol funny guy ;) or...
...sorry to upset you, I just want my pilots highly trained and well paid when I'm a passenger.
@dantaylor08
I'm guessing it was less than 26 minutes. It's not like you can burn a u-turn at the next alley when you realize you overshot your target. They probably contacted ATC, and were directed to a point downrange from the airport where they could commence their turnaround.
I think his point was that pilots are well paid right now, making 100-150K on average. That's as much as a top flight programmer or analyst would make. So if you're a bright student thinking about his future, you could choose CPSC, where you know that you'll spend a long time in cubicle hell as you work your way up the corporate world to maybe reach topflight developer status (10-15 years) and make 80-120k, or you could go to flight school, spend 5 years on the job and have a good chance of making 100k+. On top of that, you get to travel all over the country/world.
I think a reason not to do it is that it would take you away from your family more than most other jobs. Otherwise, there isn't much downside.
Actually was closer to an hour. The flight crew were out of communication for an hour.
They should have checked in with Minneapolis approach control at least 30 minutes before they passed over the airport at cruising altitude. They would also have started their descent to merge with teh traffic control pattern about 10-15 minutes before landing.
So it is much worse then it sounds.
Good thing that their is air traffic control to prevent mid-air collisions, since the crew wasn't paying attention. Of course, ATC wouldn't have contacted them to prevent a mid-air collision, because the pilots never bothered to retune their radios to a Minneapolis frequency once they checked out of Denver's air space. Time for a new career for someone. Even the union won't let this one fly by.
@joel:
I agree on the pay aspect of your comment, but in terms of "you get to travel all over the country/world", this isn't all that it's cracked up to be. It's definitely cool at first, but frequent travel gets old quickly. You aren't going on vacation with family or friends. The hours, time zone changes, hotels, hotel/restaurant food, living out of a suitcase, etc. wears on you. Spending the evening in a hotel room is not the same as spending the evening at home. Not to mention the strain from being away from your wife/children/friends.
As someone who spent a lot of time flying around the country/world for business, I was really happy to settle back down into the office. I was well compensated, but the job was definitely draining. Add to that the immense responsibility that pilots have, and the pay has to be extremely good if the airline industry wants to retain pilots in the long term.
Not that these 2 jokers deserve their jobs - they are paid well because there are high expectations placed on them. They obviously failed to meet those expectations.
I think the issue with the pay comments is this:
WHY do you think that pilots are underpaid?? I say that fire fighters are underpaid because their jobs are RIDICULOUSLY hard and it takes a very special breed of human being to do that job (or even to have the desire to do that job.)
Being a pilot isn't particularly that difficult.
It takes training, yes; but so does being an accountant.
They're responsible for transporting passengers and responsible for their safety in transit; but so are cab drivers.
I think a lot of people who are making $25k doing laborious jobs are a little tired of hearing about all the other people out there who are "underpaid" while they make six times as much.
(And, no, I'm not one of those people. My job is pretty easy if you have the right training, and I'm paid well enough for it.) I guess I'm just saying that "under paid" is a VERY relative term in most circumstances.
ahh flight simulator... frustrating, yet so fun.
but they can still use ad-hoc wifi to fight a 1-vs-1
"OMG FLIGHT SIMULATOR IS MY FAVORITE GAME!!1"
and then i punch him in the head and say, "this isnt a game little girl, this is real life"
if they had access to WoW, man would have finally landed on mars.
or on the moon, depending on what you believe ;P
If they were playing WoW they would have ended up in Outlands you noobtards.
Old MS Flight Simulators will forever remind me of what a dick Richard M. Daley is.
I lol'd at the WoW reference.
going an uldar run, you coming?
DPS LFG H ToC
Leeeeeeeerooooy Jeeenkiiiiiinss!
lol
i think you mean "how far OFF"
I think you mean "I".
i'm not "journalist" writing for a major blog read by 0.3% of the internet (which ranks them at 355 according to Alexa).
damnit. "i'm the THE 'journalist.'"
my point still stands though.
You, sir, are crazy. First you're not journalist, then you're the THE journalist! Make up your mind.
God that pic takes me back. I don't care what you say, that pixelated skyline warms my heart.
Well that's 2 less pilots that need to bitch about Delta's new post-merger seniority list
(horrible joke....sorry, but I'm an aviation enthusiast)