Ed. Note: The following post ran on US NEWS yesterday. 
Do you have a grandparent like this? A middle aged friend of mine recently visited her 90-year-old grandma in a local nursing home. “Oh my God,” Grandma said. “What happened to you? You’re so fat.”
The older we get, the less we can count on the filtering system that allows us to think before we speak. It becomes—like standing up straight or smooth skin—just a fond memory. Like Grandma, or my Uncle Curly, older folks start saying what they want because, in their minds, it sure makes sense. For us, it is entertainment–”Did you hear Uncle Curly at Thanksgiving??”
Every day, those of us who have not yet reached that age bracket fight this filter battle. Do we not? For example, you’re thinking jerk when the boss stops by, but you are perfectly nice and smiley. “Everything is fine,” I tell the waiter, when my eggs were cold enough to cool my coffee.
Even kids learn how to do this. Who among us didn’t try the old, “My dog ate my homework,” excuse? We also learned our lesson—after being embarrassed in front of our fifth grade class, including little Suzie with the really cute smile. We learn that the things that sound so good in our minds need to be filtered a bit. We must ask: How will this play? Does this pass the smell test? What will others say? Do we care? Should I think a bit more about this excuse or this thought?
So, now we come to the airline pilots who missed Minneapolis by 150 miles. At first, they said they were arguing over airline policies. Ohreally?
Now, they say they were on their laptops checking out their schedules. (I see. And everyone can identify with spending too much time on the ‘puter. )
I think it is cute to visit Uncle Curly just to see what the heck he will say. His filter is broken, and so what?
Somehow it is less cute when airline pilots don’t know better.
10 users commented in " Airline Pilots’ Excuses: Oh Come On! "
Ed. Note: I am re-purposing this to make my real point, which might be too subtle. As stupid, even dangerous as overhooting your destination by 150 miles, is…plus the danger to passengers and so forth, is the ease of the lie. Not only is it becoming easy to lie, no one really cares about the dogatemyhomework nature of the lie. We can do better? More creativity, know what I mean?
I only hope that lying does not work itself from the cockpit down to the maintenance hanger..”yeah, boss, I checked that jet engine completely —should be good to go.”
GL, it is even more glaring when juxtaposed to the dignity and competence of Sully. When you are good … you don’t have to lie.
Conrad, yep.
Someone asked me if I knew what they were doing in the cockpit. They were sleeping and determined that an outrageous lie would be better than the public knowing that pilots get bored and catch a few winks, with the autopilot on. Know how sleepy you get in the car when your passenger sleeps on a cross country trip, same same. Well, not quite…I guess there are no guard rails up at 40,000 feet.
Its inexcusable for anyone to lie. Yeah, we let the mechanic down the street who works on our car get by with it. But airline pilots, no way do we let these two off the hook. They should have their feet held to the fire until they tell the truth.
I’m the first guy in line to offer mercy and a second chance. But our two sleeping beauties had way too much responsibility in their hands to be given another chance. Their pilot’s license should be eternally revoked.
Last thought. I get sleepy when I drive long distance and with a jet on autopilot, I bet they did, too. Had they told the truth in the beginning, I would have respect for them for ‘fessing up. But, since they lied to cover their mistake, they revealed their true character and they lost all respect.
You’re right, GL. If they’d just admitted to falling asleep, the debate would quickly have shifted away from those two pilots personally, and become more about how to make a better protocol so pilots DON’T fall asleep. As you say, we can all relate to being a sleepy driver.
By making up implausible excuses, they’ve forced us to use our imaginations to guess what they were really doing. It had to be something pretty danged mesmerizing! I can think of several scenarios that are both far more plausible — and far more sordid — than being asleep.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
Sorry — make that “… than being distracted on their laptops.” (Point being, “asleep” is the least damaging scenario.)
Ok Julie…I’ll bite. What did you think they were doing???
Good points by the way.
David—exactly right. It is the lie that is the thing. checking our schedules on our laptops..puh-lease.
Julie…what sordid things can two pilots be doing on their laptops at 40,000 ft? If they had an internet connection….I can only imagine!
My Dad was a Navy pilot in WWII. Stationed in the Phillipines late in the war, the pilots often flew insane lenghts of time, and with 4 hrs “sleep”, took off again, to recon. One pilot my Dad remembered very well woke up from a “nap” (on the ground), and his hair had gone white. True story.
So you can see why I wanted to commit violent acts on these two jerks who overflew Minneapolis and made lame excuses.
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