By now, everybody's heard the story about the two Northwest Airlines pilots who somehow overshot their destination city of Minneapolis-St.Paul by 150 miles. Early stories suggested that they had fallen asleep in the cockpit or had gotten into some sort of argument over airline policy causing them to become distracted. Turns out, they were just surfing the web. WHAT????
You read that right, apparently the two pilots were using personal laptop computers and lost track of time, and may lose their pilot licenses (they should) for being in violation of policy.
It's bad enough when I thought that pilots were asleep at the wheel, auto-pilot be damned, but to know that these two were essentially surfing the net causes me all kinds of concern. For one, operating an airplane isn't like operating a can opener. These idiots had the lives of over a hundred people in their hands. But even more disconcerting is this: what the HELL websites were they perusing that caused them so much distraction that THEY FORGOT TO FLY THE PLANE???
Well, that got me to thinking so I came up with a list of possible uber-distracting surfs (if you will):
1) Pr0n - They overshot by 150 miles or so and given the airplanes rate of speed, that could be a solid 30 or so minutes of surfing their favorite pr0n sites online and watching a movie or two (you know how short those movies can be...oh you don't? Neither do I.)
2) TMZ - I don't know about you, but keeping up with Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie can be a daunting task. I mean there's just not enough time in the day. I can TOTALLY see our two pilots getting lost in Halle Berry's baby and getting into a discussion about Miley Cyrus' earning potential or the latest nudey pics surfacing online. Totally believable.
3) ESPN - I know I've lost hours reading columns by Bill Simmons. It could happen to anybody.
4) Updating Fantasy Football - If it was between making a trade and landing a plane, I'd totally make the trade. The plane can always land later (as evidenced by their decision), but you might lose out on Plaxico Burress if you don't pull the trigger. Oh...right.
5) Guyspeak - I'm guessing what really happened was that the pilots became so encapsulated reading the various entertaining and enlightening anecdotes and words of wisdom from the jolly fellows that write there. If I had to bet money, that's where I'd place it.
What do you think? What had them SO enthralled that they forgot to land a damn plane?
It's bad enough when I thought that pilots were asleep at the wheel, auto-pilot be damned, but to know that these two were essentially surfing the net causes me all kinds of concern. For one, operating an airplane isn't like operating a can opener. These idiots had the lives of over a hundred people in their hands. But even more disconcerting is this: what the HELL websites were they perusing that caused them so much distraction that THEY FORGOT TO FLY THE PLANE???
Well, that got me to thinking so I came up with a list of possible uber-distracting surfs (if you will):
1) Pr0n - They overshot by 150 miles or so and given the airplanes rate of speed, that could be a solid 30 or so minutes of surfing their favorite pr0n sites online and watching a movie or two (you know how short those movies can be...oh you don't? Neither do I.)
2) TMZ - I don't know about you, but keeping up with Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie can be a daunting task. I mean there's just not enough time in the day. I can TOTALLY see our two pilots getting lost in Halle Berry's baby and getting into a discussion about Miley Cyrus' earning potential or the latest nudey pics surfacing online. Totally believable.
3) ESPN - I know I've lost hours reading columns by Bill Simmons. It could happen to anybody.
4) Updating Fantasy Football - If it was between making a trade and landing a plane, I'd totally make the trade. The plane can always land later (as evidenced by their decision), but you might lose out on Plaxico Burress if you don't pull the trigger. Oh...right.
5) Guyspeak - I'm guessing what really happened was that the pilots became so encapsulated reading the various entertaining and enlightening anecdotes and words of wisdom from the jolly fellows that write there. If I had to bet money, that's where I'd place it.
What do you think? What had them SO enthralled that they forgot to land a damn plane?
6) Listening to NWA. DJ Yella, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and Eazy-E. The holy quadrinity of awesomeness.