Were Mesa Airlines pilots asleep at the helm in Hawaii?
 

All over the news in Hawaii today, the FAA has opened an investigation of the crew of a Mesa Airlines / go! flight crew, believed to have possibly both fallen asleep on a 40 minute flight from Honolulu to Hilo at 9:00 in the morning, overflying the airport at FL210 while not responding to attempted ATC contact for 25 minutes. Apparently the flight attendant had to bang on the cockpit door to get their attention. Yet another call for the restructuring of US flight duty time regulations and a thorough investigation of Mesa's scheduling practices.


http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/4199/40/

Hey, I changed your thread title to a question - you wrote it as a statement that the pilots were in fact asleep but this is obviously speculation at this point.
I certainly hope it's not true but if it is it is just another nail in the coffin of the old duty regulations in this country. They need changing sooner rather than later.

Weasil,

I've got to actually agree with you but in an era of sleep aids and other drugs for this and that, you've got to wonder how many of these are tested for after effects in the low pressure environment of flight.

Did they both take an over the counter sleep aid the night before? I hope we can actually get some answers on this one.

Weasil,

I've got to actually agree with you but in an era of sleep aids and other drugs for this and that, you've got to wonder how many of these are tested for after effects in the low pressure environment of flight.

Did they both take an over the counter sleep aid the night before? I hope we can actually get some answers on this one.

The rest times need to reflect actual time at the hotel, not the van ride on the way there. "Travel not local in nature", needs to be changed to reflect all travel as not part of rest time.

My understanding of the way go! does their rest is you get min rest every night with some trips your last night you are on reduced rest since you receive your required comp rest within 24 hours. Alot of the regionals are going to this format since they are having staffing issues where the crews are getting min rest every night. We all know that with min rest you are lucky if you get 4-5 hours sleeping time after you shut down the plane, get to the hotel, relax and fall asleep, get up to catch the can back for showtime.