FAA revokes licenses of pilots who overshot airport

Talk about it

The federal government has grounded the two pilots who overshot a Northwest Airlines plane by 150 miles into Wisconsin last week.

The FAA has revoked the licenses of flight captain Tim Cheney of Gig Harbor Wash., and first officer Richard Cole of Salem, Ore.

They have 10 days to ask the National Transportation Safety Board for their licenses back.

And if the board says no, they can try to get new licenses in a year.

Cheney and Cole told investigators they were talking and using their personal laptop computers when they lost track of time, and failed to land their eastbound flight at the Twin Cities.

They were east of Eau Claire when a flight attendant asked them when they were going to land.

In a letter to the two pilots, FAA regional counsel Eddie Thomas said they were extremely reckless to go 91 minutes without contacting ground controllers while “you were on a frolic of your own.”

The flight from San Diego had 144 passengers.

One of them, Lonnie Heidtke of Chippewa Falls, said it was a “little severe” to pull the pilots’ licenses. But he still thought they should be grounded for awhile to think about what they did.

Tags: northwest airlines, pilots licenses, wisconsin, revoked