Flight 188: What the tapes tell us

The FAA on Friday released transcripts and audio of the communication — or lack of it — between air traffic controllers and the pilots of Northwest flight 188, which overshot Minneapolis last month.

What do the tapes tell us that we didn’t already know? Nothing, except that the first question controllers had when they re-established contact wasn’t “what happened?” It was “how much fuel do you have?” Mercifully, the flight had another two hours of fuel.

The second question was “what happened?” The answer was no different than what we’ve heard so far — “cockpit distractions.”

The tapes also showed it was pilots of a Northwest Minneapolis-to-Hartford flight that made contact with the wayward pilots

You can find all the transcripts and audio here. You can find all my reporting on the subject here.