FAA checks report of sleeping go! pilots

Aviation Airlines
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The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether the pilots of a go! airlines flight fell asleep on the way from Honolulu to Hilo on Feb. 13.

FAA public affairs officer Ian Gregor confirmed the investigation but said the FAA could not comment until it completes its investigation.

KGMB-9 reported Monday that air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilots of Flight 1002 for 25 minutes and received no response.

The aircraft, which took off on time from Honolulu at 9:25 a.m., flew past the Big Island and 15 miles out to sea before turning around and landing, sources told the Honolulu news station. The 200-mile flight between Honolulu and Hilo typically takes about 40 minutes.

Jonathan Ornstein, chairman and CEO of Mesa Air Group, go!'s parent company in Phoenix, told PBN on Tuesday: “At this point, it is under investigation by Mesa, and until that investigation is complete and we have a better understanding of what happened, we can’t comment.”

Gregor said pilots who violate FAA regulations can be subject to a wide range of sanctions, including revocation of their pilot’s license.

“Until we determine exactly what happened, it would be inappropriate to comment what if any action will be done,” Gregor said.

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They could’ve at least napped in shifts.

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This raises many questions, most of which will probably not be revealed in the final report. Where was the flight attendant? Asleep in the jump seat or working in the cockpit? Were the pilots hung over from the night before or still drunk?

Next stop Mexico!

I apologize in advance Msh168.

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http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASH1002/history/20080213/1925Z/PHNL/PHTO

Flight looks normal. But if the flight attendant was “working” in the cockpit, hopefully this all gets swept under the rug. :smiley:

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Was she French?..and is there a video?.. :wink:

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More importantly, swallow or s…, er, uh, never mind!

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Captain’s Discretion.

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:stuck_out_tongue: JHEM’s batting clean up again! :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Wonder if anyone got lei-d on that flight…

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(anybody remember the acsii art character signifying “teetering”?)

11

Everyone nearly got screwed!

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A sleepy flight crew departs for midnight flight from HNL to ITO.

The yawning FO finishes the pax briefing, but mistakenly, before he lets go of the mic he announces, “Boy, I sure could use a coffee and a blow-j@#!!”

Suddenly, one of the flight attendants jumps to her feet and rushes the cabin to advise the crew that the mic is still open.

On her way, an old lady in 3b stops her and says…

YOU FORGOT THE COFFEE!

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My uncle worked on the LEM for the Apollo program in the late sixties. He move to the Houston area for about three years. While there he got friendly with quite a few pilots who used to take him up. He told me of this one business man who had to round trip it to some where in the midwest 3-4 times a week. Anyway he claims that he would get up to altitude, turn on the “autopilot” and climb in the back and go to sleep. :open_mouth: I always doubted that story, but he said the guy was a crazy SOB a he believed every word.

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Not anymore. Looks like the page was corrected since I looked last. A definite excursion there. Then look at the track log. Rather hasty descent of over 5000 fpm from FL210 to 1500’. Must have been interesting, to say the least, for the pax to see the ocean coming up at them quickly while passing thru 4000’ still doing well over 300 kts.
“This is your captain speaking. OOPS! We’ll be there shortly now that the red bull has kicked in…”

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[quote=“QuickBurn”]

I do find it odd that the flight took 29 minutes, exactly what seems to be a normal duration, and, when compared to the flight plan estimations, actually arrived 12 minutes before schedule. :question:

16

Hey,

I read a story sometime back from a guy who was Jumpseating on a 747 Trans Pacific Flight, Going Red-Eye…Can’t remember the Airline, or if he even gave one…

Basically he stated that take-off and climb were normal, but when they got to cruise and were all set on the INS, the FO suddenly pulled an alarm clock out of his Flight Bag, set it on top fo the Panel, and set the Alarm and everyone in the Cockpit basically sat back and nodded off…The alarm was set to go off at their First Waypoint check-in…it’d go off, Captain or FO would wake up, do the check in with ATC, and then reset it for the next waypoint time…and back to sleep they went…

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http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/4803/40/

News story with ATC audio.

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Suspected sleeping go! pilots fired . . . (from honoluluadvertiser.com)

Two pilots suspected of falling asleep on a flight from Honolulu to Hilo in February were fired last week by go! airlines and may also face Federal Aviation Administration sanctions.

Paul Skellon, vice president of corporate communications for Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group, go!'s parent company, issued a statement today confirming the firing.

“After a thorough internal investigation into the incident on Feb. 13 in which go! Flight 1002 overflew the airport at Hilo, Mesa has terminated the employment of both pilots involved,” Skellon said by telephone from Phoenix.

The pilots were not identified.

go! Flight 1002 was headed for Hilo Airport at about 10 a.m. but overshot the airport by 15 miles before returning to land safely. A radar track of the 214-mile flight provided by the Web site www.flightaware.com shows the plane remained at 21,000 feet as it flew past Hilo before returning to the airport. Air traffic controllers reportedly were unable to contact the pilots for a while.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor, in a telephone interview from California, said findings from his agency’s investigation will be released in a few weeks. Gregor said if there are FAA sanctions, they could range from a warning letter to suspension to revocation of the pilots’ licenses.

go!, which began flying in Hawai’i in June 2006, flies 50-seat Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft.

Local pilots say most commercial flights between Honolulu and Hilo have an autopilot function that can set the plane’s route, altitude and speed. The autopilot also controls the descent when the aircraft approaches an airport.

But toward the end of the flight, the pilot needs to manually set a lower altitude for landing. Failure to do this would mean that the plane would continue past its landing point, which may have occurred on Flight 1002, the local pilots said.

FAA officials could not recall the last time they investigated an off-course airliner in Hawaii.

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Serioiusly. How jacked-up do you have to be to click out during a 40-minute flight? :confused: