"O" for Obvious (or Overkill).

It has been revealed that the two Northwest Airlines pilots who shunned radio communication last week were busy using their personal laptops. Given the preoccupation, NWA Flight 188 overshot the MSP airport by approximately 150 miles last Wednesday evening. While the pilots are currently on suspension, review of this incident will likely result in the their firings.

Case closed, right? I mean, if there were a rash of incidents involving non-attentiveness of airline pilots, there would be cause for serious concern.

Well in these times of Government desiring to kill the proverbial fly on a wall with a sledgehammer, our senior US Senator feels the need to demagogue get involved.

"This may be the ultimate case of distracted driving, only this time it was distracted flying," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat and a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on aviation operations, safety and security. "The pilots should have been focused on safely steering Flight 188 home, instead of checking crew schedules."

YOU'RE FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!!! Next thing you'll tell me is that playing poker and drinking beer during the flight would have been out of bounds also. I mean, really, Senator. Why don't you just go ahead and point out more incredibly obvious facts, like there being a difference between soup and Thousand Island salad dressing (Well...that's obvious to most people).

"It is simply unacceptable," she said.

Uh Oh!!! Now we have a disgruntled US Senator on our hands. Any estimates as to how much time Congress will waste on denigrating the behavior of all airline pilots based on the behavior of two dolts? This has the making a bad "Dilbert" story line.



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