EDITORIAL: Distracted pilots and battery blowups

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Oct 29, 2009 (Tampa Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- NWA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The shocking inattention apparent in the cockpit of a wayward Northwest Airlines flight has angered passengers and regulators. The pilots overshot Minneapolis by 100 miles, and if a flight attendant hadn't asked them for an explanation, they soon would have been accompanied by fighter jets.

The pilots are being held accountable and have lost their licenses. Such high-profile blunders will force a review of pilot behavior and perhaps head off a disaster.

Meanwhile, other trouble brewing back in the passenger section is not getting anywhere near the attention it deserves.

The Northwest pilots said they were distracted by their personal laptop computers. So are many passengers, who are carrying aboard a wide variety of wireless devices.

Despite the best efforts of flight crews, some passengers are sneaking in calls on their cell phones while the airliner is landing or taking off. The radio signals from the phones can interfere with the airplane's controls during these critical phases of flight.

Another problem is caused by the rechargeable batteries powering most of these devices. They sometimes overheat or even explode.

An electrical short in the circuit of even a tiny phone can release a flash of energy from the lithium battery, causing enough heat to start a fire or make the battery explode. Problems are rare, but the number of passengers and batteries they carry is high enough to cause a battery issue in the air about once every four months.

In a report released this summer, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration listed a number of recent safety incidents voluntarily reported by pilots or crews. Among them are the following:

A passenger tossed a hot, melting battery onto the cabin floor while the plane was in flight. The pilot managed to pick it up and put it into a bag.

A passenger's 9-volt battery became too hot to hold, and a crew member put it in a cup of ice.

A power cord attached to two personal computers overheated, creating so much smoke and fumes in the cabin that an airliner had to make an early, unscheduled landing.

On a B737, a passenger's portable GPS interfered with the plane's navigation system.

A passenger's malfunctioning recharger destroyed an MP3 player.

A Palm Pilot used by a passenger caused radio reception to become erratic and interfered with the pilot's attempt to track signals to the runway.

A pilot of an airliner had to gain altitude to avoid an image on his collision avoidance system; it was a false image believed to be caused by interference from a passenger's laptop computer.

Smelling plastic burning, a flight crew put on oxygen masks. The fumes came from a passenger's malfunctioning CD player.

An exploding battery damaged a seat cushion and smoked up the cabin.

Clearly, flight crews and passengers need training in what to do if a phone or computer begins billowing smoke. Faulty products need to be identified and removed from the market.

And passengers who intentionally violate reasonable restrictions on the use of personal electronic devices should be banned from the air.

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