airliner vs. street bus
I may be the only person on the forum who has actually driven a bus and been an airline pilot.
there is no comparison...driving a bus on the streets of chicago is tougher than flying an airliner.
but things happen at a different rate, and the ultimate safety valve on a bus is the brake...things go wrong and you STOP...if you STOP while in the air...you die.
rottenray said there isn't an excuse for being out of radio contact for 91 minutes.
Well, there are excuses. Radio failure for one. Now, most pilots get into sort of a rhythym and get suspicious when they haven't been talking on the radio for awhile...those folks usually use the term: RADIO CHECK and get an answer from center.the good ones will even use their call sign.
BUT UNLESS you are positive that there was not one chance of a stuck microphone, a simultaneous/blocked transmission then wait for the NTSB to do its work.
Don't get me wrong. IF a pilot on my plane wanted to use a laptop for something other than a wifi look at wx...I wouldn't allow it.