At some point, you probably have been distracted when you are supposed to be doing something else. Sometimes, you might get really really distracted, and forget what you were supposed to do. This is one of those times, where two pilots flying Northwest Flight 188 were distracted to the point it became a national security threat.

After the 9/11 attacks, several changes happened in the aviation industry. First, the fact that the pilots had to regularly check in with air traffic control was more heavily enforced, as the hijackers did not respond to ATC, but nothing happened. Now, if a plane did not respond to ATC in a short amount of time, NORAD would send fighter jets to intercept the plane, hijacked or not.

Also, due to several economic factors, and the 9/11 attacks, several major airlines had faced Chapter 11 bankruptcies, and merged or got absorbed by larger airlines, like TWA and American, Continental and United, US Airways and America West, US Airways and American, and, the focus of today’s story, Northwest and Delta, which happened in 2008, and completed in 2010.

Northwest Airlines was an airline that served Northwest(Who knew?!) and Pacific Airline hubs, and was one of the largest airlines in America. However, it had fallen on rough times, and in 2005, for the first time in it’s history, it declared bankruptcy. However, while other airlines bounded back, Northwest did not. So, in 2008, Delta bought the airline, which made Delta the largest airline in the world, until the US Airways and American merger in 2013.

However, with this merger, there was some major friction because, with all these new pilot’s and employees, the seniority lists will have to merge and change, which will lead to some pilot’s getting downgraded. Also, there are also changes with operational procedures, and pilots who are used to flying an aircraft will have to fly it a different way. Finally, the bidding system changed, which is where pilot’s can have some impact on their flights, and the flights they get in the future. Now with the merger, the bidding system changed. So, there were some problems with the merger, which would show in Northwest flight 188…

NWA 188 was a regular flight from San Diego to Minneapolis. The pilots in this crew included the captain, who usually flew to and from Minneapolis airport. The First Officer also usually flew in Minneapolis, and the two met and flew on their flight to San Diego, where it was uneventful. Then, they both hopped on a flight back as passengers to Minneapolis. Finally, on the 21st of October, 2009, the day of the flight dawned on America as the pilots went to meet in preparation for the flights that day, which was to San Diego and back. All was good.

The flight to San Diego was uneventful, and it was time for the return flight to Minneapolis. The expected arrival time was 8:04 PM, and the takeoff and climb was normal. After reaching 37,000ft in the air as cruising altitude, the pilots took their headsets off and put ATC on the overhead speaker.

As the pilots were cruising through the sky’s over the Rockies, the pilots got food and also went to the bathroom quickly, while also transmitting one more message to Denver ATC. After that, they started talking about the new Delta Bidding System, which the captain was unhappy about, because he had more commutes than he wanted. With this, the first officer said he could help with that, as he was better with the system. With this, the captain took out his computer and showed his bids, and explained to the first officer. The first officer then took out his computer and began to explain to the captain how he was supposed to use the system, just like your parent helping you with the problem in the math homework you are supposed to be doing now. With this, both pilots get really distracted in this discussion, and practically forget they are supposed to be flying the plane.

Meanwhile, Denver ATC is trying to contact the pilots, but to no response, as they are still talking about the bids system, the meaning of life, how Archduke Franz Ferdinand created Anime, and other things. With this, Denver center initiates a NORDO, or No Radio Communication event starts, and the Air Traffic Control is trained to continue trying to reach the aircraft, but, if there is still no response, they have to notify their FAA Representative. The FAA Representative would procced to alert the US Domestic Events Network, which would alert the Pentagon, the FBI and NORAD. NORAD would then proceed to send fighter jets to intercept the aircraft to see what’s going on, and potentially shoot it down. Luckily for the flight, the procedure takes longer than the 10 minutes it should, so the shootdown wasn’t immediate. However, soon, the FAA Rep got the call, and everyone on the planet, including President Obama, was keeping an eye on this plane, as they feared it could be another hijacking.

Soon, the pilots, who are getting really invested in this discussion about the bidding system(Makes you wonder how complicated it was in the first place), so, that, when they pass Minneapolis, they don’t notice, and keep flying for another 100 miles, while hearing some radio chatter in the background, like the English teacher while you are on your phone watching funny cat videos on Instagram.

Soon, just as the captain had his Ooh! moment, a flight attendant walked in and asked when they were supposed to land. With this, the pilots look at their navigation display, it was blank, as it was on heading mode now. With this, both pilots realized what they had just done, as they were so distracted they forgot they were supposed to fly the plane, to the point they flew past Minneapolis for over 100 miles! The First Officer immediately tries to call Air Traffic Control, but the frequency was from over an hour ago. So, he calls the emergency frequency, and contacts Winnipeg Control, who redirects them to Minneapolis ATC, where the pilots explain briefly that they were distracted. However, they are suspicious that these might not be the pilots because, how does one get that distracted for an hour. So, he makes the plane do maneuvers only the pilots would know on the approach to Minneapolis. Finally, at 9:07, the flight lands.

With this, both pilot’s were forced immediately to make a statement on what they were doing in the plane. With that, they were fired from Northwest, and their pilot’s licenses were revoked. After that, Congress actually did something(WOW!) and banned computers and other devices to be used by the pilots during flights. Also, a precedent was put into place for pilots to not go into to in depth discussions.

In 2010, Northwest Airlines fully merged with Delta, and Northwest’s aircraft are now still used by Delta.

Basically, don’t get distracted too much. Now, get your butt off here and do your homework.