Investigation into flight mistake

MINNEAPOLIS (WIVB) - It's the question a lot of people are asking.

How did two pilots for one of the nation's biggest airlines fly past their destination by 150 miles?

Were they arguing?

Catching up on sleep?

Not so said one of the pilots of Flight 188.

Flight 188 pilot, Richard Cole said, "Nobody was asleep in the cockpit. And no arguments took place. But other than that, I cannot tell you anything that went on."

How did two Northwest Airlines pilots start in San Diego, leave the airspace over Denver, and then go silent, out of radio contact for an hour and eighteen minutes, overshooting their destination, Minneapolis, by 150 miles?

Air Traffic Controller from Minneapolis, Craig Boehne explained, "There was a very high level of anxiety when the aircraft passed over the airport. There's no doubt about that."

By that time, four National Guard F-16's were put on standby.

It's believed that Flight 188 was still on Denver's radio frequency, but eventually dialed into Minneapolis, and was turned around.

"I just noticed when it was 8 and our flight hadn't landed and we didn't hear anything," exclaimed one passenger.

"We started to question it," a passenger said.

Once on the ground, the pilots told waiting FBI agents they had been in a heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness.

But some air safety experts suspect that's not the whole story.

"Well it would have to be a heck of a discussion and I would think there would have to be some confirming evidence of that somewhere," said former NTSB Managing Director, Peter Goelz.

A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said that fatigue and cockpit distraction will be looked into.

News 4 Aviation Analyst, Bob Miller said, "This is a very very serious incident."

Miller also said that even though this kind of incident is extremely rare, it cannot be tolerated.

"If it comes down as we suspect, either distracted by conversation or worse asleep, either one is an unacceptable form of behavior for two professional airline pilots," he stated.

"I can't talk about specifics but there are a lot of misinformation that's going on. Things are being said that didn't happen but I can't go into any details," Flight 188 Pilot, Richard Cole explained.

"Their job is to fly the plane. My job is to ride the plane. Their job is to fly the plane. It's unbelievable," passenger, Andrea Allmon exclaimed.

The voice and flight data recorders are now in the hands of investigators.

It's an older model that saves only the last 30 minutes of conversation.

The two pilots, Timothy Cheney and Richard Cole, have been temporarily suspended.