Hype? They landed with 20 minutes of fuel left.
It would have taken about twenty minutes to go 150 miles. Here you stated you wouldn’t have waited 78 minutes without saying something. If the aircraft was headed back, you wouldn’t need to say anything.
Do you know why the pilots didn’t respond for the period of time they didn’t?
The hand off call by the controller wasn’t acknowledged. For that reason the pilots didn’t change to the proper new frequency. The air traffic controller by policy should have contacted them again, until he got acknowledgment on the first frequency. He didn’t.
One of the pilots went to the bathroom when the air traffic controller made the first attempt at a notification. I’m not sure why the co-pilot didn’t hear it, but he didn’t. I’d imagine this happens from time to time.
If you get involved in something else, scheduling or something, you could lose track of time. KFI LA had on an expert consultant and he pretty much stated that these pilots may very well not have been that far out of line.
He thought they should get a few months without pay, but shouldn’t lose their licenses over this.
His take on it was certainly 180 degrees from what the media hype as been on it.