Picture yourself in this situation. You’re on a jet that is headed for Minneapolis. Your flight seems unusually long. Then you suddenly realize that your pilots have over-flown the airport by more than an hour. Even scarier still; after landing, you receive word that your pilots may have been asleep during the flight. For the 144 passengers onboard the Northwest flight 188, this nightmarish vision became a reality. Early reports indicate that the pilots flying the Airbus A320 out of San Diego were not asleep at the wheel, but were engrossed in a new, complicated crew-scheduling system. They were so distracted from their duties that they failed to respond to frantic radio calls from air traffic controllers on the ground in Denver and in Minneapolis. The incident, which resulted in both pilots losing their licenses, could have been avoided had the pilots been restricted from using laptops during the flight. Currently, no federal rules exist to specifically ban pilots’ use of laptops and other personal electronic devices on flights above 10,000 feet. However, there are rules against unnecessary distractions during a critical phase in flight at any altitude; critical phases include taxi, takeoff and landing. Furthermore, the pilots were distracted by the confusing crew-scheduling system, a system that should have been figured out on the ground, or by somebody else. Incidents like these, though seemingly one-in-a-million, serve as proof that an experienced private flight advisor is needed to ensure the safety of every FAR Part 135 jet charter flight. Stratos Jets agents evaluate the pilots schedule around the dates of every charter flight. We do this to avoid conflicts that might arise related to FAA duty restrictions or potential risk related to pilot fatigue. Additionally, we make sure that the pilots of your charter aircraft have plenty of experience behind the yoke and are fully alert during your charter flight. Our personal mission at Stratos Jet Charters is to provide our clients with the safest, most well maintained aircraft, under the command of the most experienced pilots. Our private flight advisors are experts in the field of business aviation and we want you to experience the best flight possible. Whether you’re flying from Philadelphia to New York or Paris to Washington D.C., your private flight advisor is looking out for you. Since Stratos Jets doesn’t own or operate any aircraft, we spend our time making sure every flight is a safe one. Joel Thomas – President, Stratos Jet Charters