Originally Posted by
aussieflyboy
I actually briefly considered that scenario as a possible theory... but it doesn't work.
If they did indeed take off their headsets and started listening to ATC through the speakers, and the speakers weren't working. Don't you think that after 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes of radio silence they might begin to suspect a problem??
Doesn't make sense...
It does make sense ... as I proposed. I have been in plenty of airplanes where the overhead speakers were touchy, scratchy, intermittent, etc. So they take their headsets off and maybe the speaker isn't working properly. They get engrossed with their laptop and new bidding with DAL and they lose SA.
They had time to speak to ALPA and a lawyer. If they were sleeping, this thing would have been over and they'd have their jobs. They told the investigators that they were on computers. They wouldn't have done that if it wasn't true. Doing so meant that they knew they would probably get in serious trouble with the FAA or fired from the company.
If they were sleeping, why lie about that? It happens to many crews and more frequently than you would imagine.