It wasn't like missing your freeway offramp. But you've no doubt heard plenty about those pilots who missed a whole city.
OK, what's 150 miles or so?
There was plenty of speculation about how they could have missed their Minneapolis destination with the radio calling them. They were asleep. They were debating airline policy.
After being grilled earlier this week, the truth came out: They were on their laptops.
They were so distracted they didn't get their heads back into the game until the tower called them and asked if they were thinking of bringing the plane down sometime that day.
The pilots said they brought their laptops on previous flights, in violation of company rules.
I originally thought the initial speculation that the pilots were so deep in a discussion of company policies that they forgot the job at hand was the right one. Really. I've worked for companies where that kind of stuff happens. But with the laptops entering the picture, then the whole thing makes a lot more sense.
Right now I'm sitting at my laptop, writing this, and if the house burned down around me I might notice later, like if a blazing chunk of ceiling lands on my screen. And if I'm doing something mentally taxing -- like bringing this laptop back to life after I destroyed a couple of system files -- I might not even notice then. But then I'm the same way when reading, when listening to music, or having a conversation. But playing with a computer -- even if it's something lightweight like FreeCell -- requires a whole extra level of concentration that you just might forget something important.
Like landing a plane.
OK, what's 150 miles or so?
There was plenty of speculation about how they could have missed their Minneapolis destination with the radio calling them. They were asleep. They were debating airline policy.
After being grilled earlier this week, the truth came out: They were on their laptops.
They were so distracted they didn't get their heads back into the game until the tower called them and asked if they were thinking of bringing the plane down sometime that day.
The pilots said they brought their laptops on previous flights, in violation of company rules.
I originally thought the initial speculation that the pilots were so deep in a discussion of company policies that they forgot the job at hand was the right one. Really. I've worked for companies where that kind of stuff happens. But with the laptops entering the picture, then the whole thing makes a lot more sense.
Right now I'm sitting at my laptop, writing this, and if the house burned down around me I might notice later, like if a blazing chunk of ceiling lands on my screen. And if I'm doing something mentally taxing -- like bringing this laptop back to life after I destroyed a couple of system files -- I might not even notice then. But then I'm the same way when reading, when listening to music, or having a conversation. But playing with a computer -- even if it's something lightweight like FreeCell -- requires a whole extra level of concentration that you just might forget something important.
Like landing a plane.
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