Live-blogging: What happened on Flight 188

Bob CollinsBob Collins Dec 16, 2009
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Here’s the live blog of the NTSB’s release of 400 pages of evidence its gathered in its investigation into why the pilots of Northwest Airlines Flight 188 overshot their Minneapolis destination on October 21, 2009. It offers no conclusions as to what happened.

But it does shed an unfavorable light on the nation’s air traffic control system, and the lack of procedures for recognizing a potential threat from the sky. As with most aircraft accidents, it also details a chain of failures, interrupted only by a flight attendant who asked when the plane will land.

Here’s my appearance tonight on All Things Considered with Tom Crann:

  1. Audio not found

I’ve written extensively about the incident:

What the tapes tell us (11/27)

FAA on Flight 188: “We could have done better” (11/13)

Was Flight 188 out of radio contact for three hours? Probably not. (11/5)

FAA smackdown (11/2)

General: Fighter jets should’ve been airborne over Minneapolis (10/29)

Flight 188: The explanation (10/26)

The ‘What if?’ scenario (10/23)

Flight 188: Making it add up (10/23)