[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/09/faa.gi.art.jpg caption="An FAA-assembled advisory committee has recommended that the FAA endorse "controlled cockpit napping.""]

By Allan Chernoff
CNN Sr. Correspondent

"This is your pilot speaking. It's time for my nap."

While you won't hear that announcement, next year it could be exactly what's happening in the cockpit of your flight at 35,000 feet!

A Federal Aviation Administration-assembled advisory committee, representing airlines and pilots, has written to the administration, to "recommend that the FAA endorse controlled cockpit napping." A "controlled nap" would last for no more than 40-minutes to prevent pilots from falling into a deep sleep.

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt is now considering the Aviation Rulemaking Committee's recommendation, as he searches for ways to address the problem of pilot fatigue. For 19 years fatigue has been on the National Transportation Safety Board's "Most Wanted" list of urgent safety issues that need to be addressed.

Watch: Cockpit napping endorsed

"It is beyond overdue. It is needed right now. We can't wait another year," said NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman.

NASA studied the idea of pilot naps at its Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California 20-years ago. The Fatigue Countermeasures Group, known within NASA as the "Z Team", found flight deck naps to be effective and safe in reducing pilot fatigue.

"The FAA paid for that research and we've shown very clearly the nap really improved performance and alertness of the flight crews," said Curt Graeber, who led the "Z Team" of scientists and is now a fellow of the Flight Safety Foundation.

"The most risky part of the flight, in terms of safety, is the approach and landing. So we want crews to be well rested and alert on the approach and landing. The idea of a controlled rest in the flight deck helps make that happen – it's a safeguard," said Graeber.

Indeed some foreign carriers, including British Air and Air Canada, permit pilots to nap on longer flights, allowing one pilot to rest in the cockpit, while the other pilot mans the controls.

FULL POST

According to the NTSB, the two Northwest pilots who overshot their landing by 150 miles were using their laptops and lost track of time. You may be wondering – how could that happen?

In this AM original we're taking you inside the cockpit with the help of a flight simulator to see just what pilots deal with in-flight.

Read more: Report: Stray jet's pilots were on laptops

Washington (CNN) - Federal investigators have interviewed the pilots of a Northwest Airlines flight that overshot the airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last week, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said on Sunday.

The NTSB also said that flight attendants might be interviewed on Monday, and that it would not release further information for now.

Northwest Flight 188, carrying 144 people and five crew members, flew past Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport during a mysterious 78 minutes of radio silence beginning about 7:56 p.m. ET Wednesday while en route from San Diego, California.

The Airbus 320 was over the Denver, Colorado, area when the radio silence began. Air traffic controllers re-established radio contact after the plane had flown about 150 miles past its destination.

Read the full story »

Air safety investigators are studying voice and flight data recorders to find out whether the crew of Northwest Airlines Flight 188 was asleep at the controls. Air traffic controllers could not contact the flight crew for more than an hour yesterday, triggering fears of a possible hijacking.

Peter Goelz, former managing director for the National Transportation Safety Board, says the pilots are facing a serious disciplinary situation. He spoke to John Roberts on CNN’s “American Morning” Friday. Below is an edited transcript of that the interview.

John Roberts: Peter, I know there are a lot of details yet to come out about this. What's your initial reaction to what happened? What are you thinking here?

Peter Goelz: Well, this is really disturbing. The pilots are saying they were engaged in a heated discussion, and that that distracted them. And there are indications, also, that the NTSB is going to look at whether these guys were simply asleep. But in any case, they certainly were not doing their jobs.

FULL POST

By Mike M. Ahlers
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A passenger flight from San Diego, California, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, overshot its destination airport by about 150 miles Wednesday, and federal investigators are looking into whether the pilots had become distracted, as they claimed, or perhaps fallen asleep.

[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/TRAVEL/10/23/airliner.fly.by/art.minneapolis.gi.jpg.jpg caption="An aerial view shows downtown Minneapolis."]

Air traffic controllers lost radio communication with the Northwest Airlines Airbus A320, carrying 147 passengers and an unknown number of crew, when it was flying at 37,000 feet, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. There was no communication with Flight 188 for more than an hour as it approached the airport, the board said.

When air traffic controllers finally made contact with the pilot, his answers were so vague that controllers feared the plane might have been hijacked, according to a source familiar with the incident.

The controllers in Minneapolis ordered the pilot to make a series of unnecessary maneuvers to convince them the pilots were in control of the flight, the source said, adding that fighter jets were poised in Madison, Wisconsin, but were never deployed.

Read the full story »

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) - The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how an international flight into Atlanta's major airport landed on a taxiway instead of a runway early Monday.

[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/US/10/21/georgia.taxiway.incursion/art.atl.airport.jpg caption="The pilots of the plane that landed at the Atlanta airport have been relieved from flying duties pending probes."]

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said Delta Flight 60, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, was cleared to land about 6:05 a.m. Monday on Runway 27R but landed instead on Taxiway M, which runs parallel to the runway. The flight had 194 passengers and crew aboard, according to CNN affiliate WXIA.

No other aircraft were on the taxiway, and there was no damage to either the taxiway or the plane, a Boeing 767, Bergen said.

A runway or taxiway collision, particularly with one plane preparing to take off and carrying a full fuel load, would be catastrophic.

Bergen said she isn't sure whether or when other aircraft have ever landed on the taxiway at Hartsfield.

Both Runway 27R and Taxiway M are 11,890 feet long, Bergen said, but the runway is marked with white lights while the taxiway is marked with blue lights.

Delta spokesman Anthony Black said the airline is cooperating with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board in their investigation, as well as conducting an internal investigation. The pilots of the flight have been relieved from active flying pending the completion of these investigations, Black said.

Read the full story »