FAA: Jet lost contact in DC because pilot turned radio to wrong frequency

[somone]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=12520535

FAA: Pilot error led DC-bound airliner to lose radio contact, prompting US Capitol evacuation
By SARAH BRUMFIELD, Associated Press

An airliner lost radio contact when a pilot inadvertently turned his radio to the wrong frequency, leading to the scrambling of fighter jets and the evacuation of the U.S. Capitol, federal officials said Saturday.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said the agency is reviewing the "pilot readback error." The loss of radio contact as the plane approached the nation's capital also led officials to evacuate all House and Senate office buildings.

Piedmont Airlines flight 4352 from Hilton Head, S.C., was on course for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when it lost radio contact with air traffic controllers at a regional radar facility in Virginia for about 15 minutes, FAA officials said.

F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base, but the airliner was able to re-establish radio contact and it landed at Reagan, said Stacey Knott, a spokeswoman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command...

[treestar]

1. There's one very red faced pilot.

[LuckyLib]

2. He will be doing what is known as a "rug dance" in the office of the Chief Pilot.

Not to mention an extensive interview by the FBI, FAA, and the Secret Service.

[rocktivity]

3. Rex Ryan just can't stop causing trouble, can he?

The Jets didn't even play the Washington Redskins during the regular season!



:evilgrin:
rocktivity

[SheilaT]

4. I wouldn't be surprised if

turning the radio to the wrong frequency happens a lot more often than we realize. It's just not very often that it happens as a plane is approaching DCA, resulting in fighter jets being scrambled.

[valerief]

5. Must have been a temp pilot from Pilots R Us. nt

[Systematic Chaos]

6. Note the difference between the response to this gaffe...

...versus the response to the hijacked planes of 9/11.

:think:

[TexasProgresive]

7. What response? (911) n/t

[Systematic Chaos]

9. Exactly!

:P

[bluestate10]

11. Even I have to cut Bush some slack on this one.

It is easier to deal with a situation a second time around than the first. Jets were scrambled late on 9-11, but realize that the nation had never experienced what was about to happen.

[NutmegYankee]

13. Well Duh! This is after 9/11.

[lib2DaBone]

8. Good thing they caught this error..because we all know what happens...

Airliners fly into buildings and the Keresene(jet fuel) melts all the steel and then the building collapses perfectly into its own footprint and we go to war with 2 countries for no reason....

(brief summary)

[NutmegYankee]

15. The steel doesn't melt. It softens.

Which incidentally is the how Blacksmiths could forge weapons for several thousand years without having enough heat to melt steel.

And you can't call it perfectly into its own footprint when the debris covers a huge area and crushes several buildings in the vicinity - buildings which were obviously outside of the footprint.

[mwooldri]

10. *NOT* the Piedmont Airlines that was....

Piedmont Airlines == US Airways.

Also the aircraft involved was a turboprop commuter plane - a Dash 8 - either a 37 seater or a 50 seater.

Would have made an awful mess if it crashed (not in this case) but nowhere near the mess a Boeing 757 or 767 would have.

[Vickers]

12. Lost contact for 15 minutes?

This smells fishy to me...it's pretty easy to select the wrong frequency on a com/nav radio (or FMS), but the mistake is usually caught pretty quickly, either by the other pilot, or by missing some comm with the tower (request for alt change is not acknowledged, for instance).

To go 15 minutes without any relevant chatter is pretty remarkable.

[NuclearDem]

14. They were playing I Spy probably

I spy with my little eye something starting with S...

Sky.

Yep.