Can you state with confidence that the FAA did not suspend their flying priveleges pending an investigation? I know the company put them on the ground.

I have seen anything information relating that... which is they way the NWA incident should have been handled.

According to an article in the WSJ I read yesterday, it was a revocation.

I agree. thats my point. How come the Delta incident didnt getnearlythe attentionthe nwa incident did. I am not sure if theydid not suspend their certificates. I never saw anything aboutit on the news and Ilive in Atlanta. I read about it on the internet. Doesnt make sense that one incident would be made a big todo about and another incident wouldnt.

Well, without jumping on any bandwagon, there is indeed a difference between the taxiway incident and the NWA one. In the former case, a quick judgment call lead to making a decision (whether intentional or not). The latter case is just total disregard for situational awareness over an extended period of time.

I don't believe the FAA should have revoked their tickets, but for company action, that is fair game. Both these guys have proven that they are worthy of the licenses (20,000 hours in the captain's case) - just didn't show it on that day. Perhaps a suspension would have been a better action on behalf of the feds.

See, the company has to deal with the PR ramifications. They are worried about ticket sales. US Air most definitely viewed the Sully incident as positive press (the airplane went down for reasons beyond the airline's control, their skilled pilots planted it in the drink, and everyone lived). No doubt, many people purchased USAir tickets after that under the gumption their pilots are somehow superior.

NWA has the opposite PR problem - their pilots completely lost track of their SA. In order to prove they are on top of things and maintain goodwill, it is in their best interest to hang these guys (publicly). Its unfortunate, but its the way it works.

That is ridiculous.

I agree. That is not how the business or legal world works.

I think I have to agree with Bryris on this one. The ATL taxiway landing while a big goof does have extenuating circumstances with it. It also landed on concrete and successfully taxied to the gate with no imminent loss of life incurred since there was no other a/c on the taxiway. Had there been other aircraft operating remotely near the taxiway I'm sure the press would have given much more attention to this. All we can do is thank God it happened when it did.

Regarding the NWA guys, the public I think is a bit incredulous as am I without knowing the exact details, that two pilots could so completely lose SA for an hour. Again we don't know the details on it but I think its more plausible to go NORDO on a red eye where there is next to no radio chatter on Center. Then a break in comm makes sense. But a flight in the late afternoon to a hub and they not realize they've talked to no one for an hour. Come on. I don't want to pass judgement but I think the company and the FAA were never going to say this complete breakdown in judgement is something that is going to be just retrained and given two weeks off. Regardless of their career history up to this point, its unfortunate, and proves the need to consistently maintain professionalism in the cockpit whether its an RJ or a mainliner.

This thread has outlived its usefulness, both crews lost situational awareness, the publicity was picked up on one and not the other...time to move on and let the investigation continue.

That's a BS statement and shows the shallowness of those out there. Current furlough status etc has nothing to do with what's right and wrong here.

Do you honestly think that from a management perspective, there isn't a slight damper put on the company's goodwill in the eyes of the public after this incident?

The objective will be to show these guys violated company policy (they've already issued several statements publicly) and to take whatever measures need to be taken to prove that this was one isolated incident and that actions are being taken to avoid this happening in the future. We all know based on the volume of fights occurring everyday that this is really not a problem. But, the public generalizes things and it will be shown that measures are being advanced to prevent a similar problem in the future.

But, the plus is that these things have a short shelf life. In a few months, no one will be thinking about this and the problem will have largely rectified itself.

This is PR maintenance and is exactly how it works. Most large companies have PR departments that exclusively deal with issues like this, whether in aviation or otherwise.