It's not that hard

Post #316,133 by Mycroft_Holmes_Iv 10/24/09 7:10:26 AM Reply	It's not that hard especially given the altitude and speed a jet liner flies at compared to say a Cessna. But the real question is how long were they unreachable. That's bad. Commercial Airlines fly IFR - they're controlled by the tower. They have to respond to tower requests in changes of altitude/speed/direction (they're flying too fast to do "See and Avoid") We'll soon know. (Lovely voice recorders. :-) )
Post #316,153 by crazy 10/24/09 12:46:59 PM Reply	No voice recorder except last 30 minutes. If I screwed up, I'd made sure I was at least an hour past due before turning around and then I wouldn't have to worry about the voice recorder contradicting my story.
Post #316,155 by Another Scott 10/24/09 1:07:06 PM Reply	If the fighters had been scrambled it woulda be worse. If they didn't have the presence of mind to realize they'd overshot the airport, I doubt that they had the presence of mind to recall how long the flight recorder tape was. Maybe, but I doubt it. I assume that they turned around as soon as they could once they realized what had happened. Presumably it would have been much worse for the flight crew if they had gotten a fighter escort. "No, we weren't sleeping. We were just talking and ... Sorry about getting NORAD involved..." :-/ It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. Fallows has been keeping an eye on it (he's a pilot and had an interesting experience in South Dakota) - http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/ - and more harrowing incidents recently. Cheers, Scott.

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