Delta ‘Sleeping’ Quote Probably Referred to Engineer, Panel Says
A federal investigative panel said Wednesday that a review of the cockpit recordings of the Delta Air Lines jetliner that crashed and killed 136 people Aug. 2 shows that the captain probably was referring to his flight engineer and not an air traffic controller when he said: “He is sleeping. Get him out of bed.”
The National Transportation Safety Board, in releasing transcripts of the recordings Monday, said initially that the captain was referring to an air traffic controller’s transmission when making that comment 18 minutes before the crash.
“A review of the context of the Delta 191 captain’s remark, ‘He is sleeping. Get him out of bed,’ makes it clear that any suggestion in the cockpit voice recorder transcript that the comment constituted an evaluation of a center controller was unfortunate, possibly incorrect and in any event not related to the accident,” the board said in a statement Wednesday.
Federal Aviation Administration officials noted that the Fort Worth controller guiding Delta 191 had 16 years of experience.
The plane crashed in bad weather as it was approaching the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. An investigation into the accident is continuing.
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