Laptops, not naps, newest cockpit worry

WASHINGTON: Two Northwest Airlines pilots who flew 240 km past their destination because they were focused on laptop computers instead of cockpit displays may have opened a new avenue of concern for safety regulators - distracting personal electronic devices on the flight deck.

The pilots of Northwest Flight 188 told the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) this week that they

were so engrossed in a complicated new crew-scheduling program on their laptops - a cockpit violation of airline policy that could cost them their licenses - that they lost track of time and place for more than an hour until they were brought back to alertness by a flight attendant on an intercom.