Some 400 Pages Will Be Available On NTSB Website

Let the Monday morning quarter-backing begin again!

The National Transportation Safety Board will open the public docket today, Wednesday, on its investigation into the overflight event involving Northwest Airlines flight 188 in October.

On October 21, 2009, Northwest Airlines flight 188 (N03274), an Airbus A-320, went NORDO (no radio communications) for 77 minutes while flying from San Diego to Minneapolis.  The flight overflew Minneapolis by more than 100 miles before re-establishing radio contact with air traffic controllers and landing at Minneapolis/St. Paul-Wold International Airport.  There were no injuries to the passengers and crew aboard.

The approximately 400 pages of the public docket will be available on the Safety Board's website Wednesday morning, December 16. Included in the docket will be factual reports from the Operations Group, Air Traffic Control Group, Survival Factors Group, Cockpit Voice Recorder Group and Flight Data Recorder Group. NTSB says this is a factual release only, and no probable cause has been determined for the incident.

Despite the investigative/yet-to-be-fully-resolved nature of the case and the number of issues that still remain to be explained, the FAA took aggressive and severe actions against the flight crew (the ultimate result of which is that their careers are pretty much over if the matter stands), who are now in the process of appealing those actions.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov