Tech support at 37,000 feet

Technology can be fascinating -- we know this. If you're reading this, the odds are that you enjoy playing with new gadgets, trying out new Web services, downloading interesting software. However, hopefully, you're not doing it while you're supposed to be paying attention to something else. Like your job. As a pilot. In charge of a passenger jet that's supposed to be making a landing.

According to reports, the pilots aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 188 who overshot the Minneapolis airport on October 21 were bent over their personal laptops while the first officer tried to explain a new scheduling system to the captain. Nothing broke their concentration -- not their instruments, not calls from flight controllers -- until a flight attendant interrupted them to ask about arrival time.

In other words, instead of flying the plane, they were figuring out the latest software that their employer had supplied them.

Tech support at 37,000 feet.

Now, learning a new application can be difficult. Anyone who's worked in IT, or who has read Computerworld's Shark Tank, knows that some users just need those few extra hours of tutoring to understand how a new application works. But there's a time and a place for everything. And I think the crew of Flight 188 have learned that.

At least, when the two pilots ignored the air controllers trying desperately to contact them by radio, they were working on something relevant to their field. It could have been worse. They could have been tweeting.