The fact of the matter is the airline unions and disgruntled airline pilots pushed the “they were sleeping” meme even when there was — and still is — no evidence of that. Why? Because it's an issue they want the media to focus on, it confirms their agenda, even if it it turns out it's not an issue here.

I'm a pilot, I know aviation and I make no — absolutely no — apologies for my work. This pilot is wrong, dead wrong. And he knows it. He knows that the #1 rule — whether it's an emergency or a routine flight — of aviating is “fly the airplane.” He cannot now turn around and saying pilots who don't aren't a story. They ARE a story. That's not to say that his particularly beef with his profession isn't, of course.

Distracted pilots kill people. You could ask Paul Wellstone and his family if they weren't dead because of a — wait for it — distracted pilot.

I also think that the issue of the military response to failing to launch any sort of effort to assist (no, not shoot down) in this suggests that things really haven't changed in the coordination between FAA and military since 9/11.

In any event, we in the media who know what we're doing don't need Patrick Smith to scold us. We need him and his cohorts to do what they're supposed to: Fly the airplane.

The fact of the matter is the airline unions and disgruntled airline pilots pushed the “they were sleeping” meme even when there was — and still is — no evidence of that. Why? Because it's an issue they want the media to focus on, it confirms their agenda, even if it it turns out it's not an issue here.

I'm a pilot, I know aviation and I make no — absolutely no — apologies for my work. This pilot is wrong, dead wrong. And he knows it. He knows that the #1 rule — whether it's an emergency or a routine flight — of aviating is “fly the airplane.” He cannot now turn around and saying pilots who don't aren't a story. They ARE a story. That's not to say that his particularly beef with his profession isn't, of course.

Distracted pilots kill people. You could ask Paul Wellstone and his family if they weren't dead because of a — wait for it — distracted pilot.

I also think that the issue of the military response to failing to launch any sort of effort to assist (no, not shoot down) in this suggests that things really haven't changed in the coordination between FAA and military since 9/11.

In any event, we in the media who know what we're doing don't need Patrick Smith to scold us. We need him and his cohorts to do what they're supposed to: Fly the airplane.