Family Life

10.23.09 | FL News Team

Federal officials want to know whether the pilots of a Northwest Airlines flight were sleeping or arguing when they overshot the Minneapolis airport by 150 miles Wednesday night. "The Wall Street Journal" says the National Transportation Safety Board isn't necessarily buying the version of Flight 188's crew that they got into a heated discussion over airline policy and forgot to land the plane. Investigators also aren't ruling out that such a distraction caused some 78 minutes of radio silence that left air traffic controllers frantic. They had to ask pilots in other airplanes to try and raise the crew. The FAA even briefly considered scrambling fighter jets to intercept the errant airplane with 144 passengers on board. The flight from San Diego eventually doubled back and landed safely in the Twin Cities.