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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 10:05 a.m., Thursday, June 5, 2008

NTSB takes up case of go! flight that kept going

By Dennis Camire
Advertiser Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The National Transportation Safety Board next week will review a go! airlines incident involving two pilots suspected of falling asleep on a Honolulu to Hilo fight and may include it as part of recommendations on pilot fatigue.

The safety board on Tuesday also will look at three other incidents in putting together the possible recommendation to the Federal Aviation Administration on the dangers of fatigue within airline operations.

In the Hawai`i incident on Feb. 13, go! Flight 1002 overshot Hilo Airport around 10 a.m. by about 15 miles before returning to land safely about 15 minutes later with 40 passengers and three crewmembers.

The safety board's preliminary report said that the airplane, a 50-passenger Bombardier CRJ-200, was cruising at 21,000 feet when air traffic controllers made several unsuccessful attempts to contact the flight crew. Contact was finally made but only after the plane had flown past the airport, the report said.

The report also said company maintenance officials checked the airplane's pressurization system and also for carbon monoxide exposure and found no problems.

Go!, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group, fired the two pilots in April.

FAA investigators have completed their investigation but the report has not been released, said Ian Gregor, the agency's spokesman for the Western and Pacific region.

"It's now with the FAA legal (department) to determine what, if any, sanctions should be imposed on the pilots," he said.

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.