Pilots should give job full attention
Kaitlin Laubscher
Issue date: 10/30/09 Section: Opinion
Every time we board an airplane, we understand we take a certain risk. Anything could happen, but we shouldn't have to add the pilot to our lists of worries.
On Monday, a Delta Airlines flight overshot its destination in Minneapolis and proceeded into Wisconsin, losing contact with ground control for 78 minutes, according to an Oct. 26 Newsweek article.
The plane hadn't been hijacked, as ground control worried it had. The pilots were just too busy to be bothered with the safety of the plane full of trusting passengers. Apparently a laptop was more important.
The pilots were preoccupied with a new scheduling program that resulted from Northwest Airlines' merger with Delta, according to the Newsweek article. Plenty of companies have merged or changed structurally in drastic ways, and changes like these are often difficult to deal with. However, this is no excuse for a pilot to be so distracted he loses contact with ground control for more than an hour.
People have enough concerns and dangers in everyday life without wondering whether the pilot of their next flight will have mentally come to work that day.
Pilots need to realize they have human lives in their hands every day.
On Monday, a Delta Airlines flight overshot its destination in Minneapolis and proceeded into Wisconsin, losing contact with ground control for 78 minutes, according to an Oct. 26 Newsweek article.
The plane hadn't been hijacked, as ground control worried it had. The pilots were just too busy to be bothered with the safety of the plane full of trusting passengers. Apparently a laptop was more important.
The pilots were preoccupied with a new scheduling program that resulted from Northwest Airlines' merger with Delta, according to the Newsweek article. Plenty of companies have merged or changed structurally in drastic ways, and changes like these are often difficult to deal with. However, this is no excuse for a pilot to be so distracted he loses contact with ground control for more than an hour.
People have enough concerns and dangers in everyday life without wondering whether the pilot of their next flight will have mentally come to work that day.
Pilots need to realize they have human lives in their hands every day.
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