I was living in Miami after 9/11 a couple miles up the approach for Runway 30. In the weeks following it was not unusual to see a pair of F15s or F16s winging in a commercial jet domestic or international. I don’t see the big deal with that. Unless you happen to be an airline industry lobbyist.

Perhaps there is information on this we dont have right now but Im a bit concerned as to the reasons why we didn’t launch.

But I also understand there is a bit of a message in there, essentially–who was managing air safety on NWA188 while you two were pulling an eyelid inspection/dorking around on laptops/whatever? Nobody.

So a penalty must be meted out, but at the same time I would feel better if the punishment arrived after the facts were known.

Thinking these things over, who would have wanted to fly with either of these guys? You’d think 20,000 + 11,000 hours would tell you enough. Apparently not. My hunch is that SSG Jeff and Chris Taylor have the whole incident nailed.

Authorities became so alarmed that National Guard jets were readied for takeoff at two locations and the White House Situation Room alerted senior White House officials, who monitored Northwest Flight 188 with its 144 passengers and five crew members as the Airbus A320 flew across a broad swath of the mid-continent completely out of contact with anyone on the ground.

From about 5 stories down on this page. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hitISYixOv_DC0ABZeYzc6dg2BDAD9BJ1VC01