it's hard to let go, and, you know, you remember the families. >> and that is what drives the ntsb. while it has no enforcement powers, the agency will take on big companies and even public officials, demanding change. >> we've issued about 13,000 recommendations and over 80% of those have been adopted or closed out in a favorable way. >> but the ntsb doesn't always get its way. it publishes a most wanted list of proposed safety improvements. at the top now, setting stricter work hours to prevent fatigue and banning operators from using cell phones and texting. deborah hersman has been interested in transportation most of her life. >> my father was in the air force, and i so lowed in -- soloed in a piper cub before i got my driver's license z. are you a nervous traveler? >> when you're listening to the briefing, you need to look at where the emergency exits are and count how many rows are between you and the emergency exit so if you get into a dark situation or it's not well lit, you know where you want to go. >> you literally do this every time you get on a plane. >> i absolutely d

the ntsb will look at it as they do almost any investigation. they're going to see what the facts of the situation are, they are going to lay it out. and i'm sure it's going to be like any, you know, tragic accident, a series of mistakes, a chain of events that, if you break the chain, the event wouldn't happened but this is clearly just really a mess. >> what are the rules regarding building crafts like this? does the ntsb have to be informed about what you're doing or can people on their own build these things? >> well, the ntsb doesn't oversee, you know, the construction of vehicles. it's not a regulatory agency. it is simply an investigative agency. that's all they do is they investigate accidents, they make recommendations so that -- hopefully, the accident doesn't happen again. i think they'll look at this and see if there's any need to strengthen, you know, the rules governing, you know, these kinds of vehicles. i mean, this is just a very strange event and i'm sure, you know, they'll take a look at it and see if there needs to be some fu

. >> the ntsb has cited vie lage s of the cockpit rule in six crashes since 2004 according to a survey in "usa today." in lexington, kentucky, 2006, chatting cockpit crew took off on the runway. 49 were killed. in jefferson city, missouri, 2004, the pilot and co-pilot were laughing about alcohol minutes before impact. they both died. investigators are looking to whether the 2009 crash in new york. pilots usually do adhere to the sterile cockpit rule. but says to improve compliance, there should be more training and more observation. >> but a properly train ed airline pilot sits in the jump seat and observes his or her fellow pilots and has the ability to comment, to question. >> in that situation, however, a pilot might be careful not to break the rules. more realistic way to get a sense of the problem might be to pull cockpit voice recorders and listen to conversations. but people on all sides of this debate say that's a nonstarter. gene meserve, cnn, washington. >>> one man's goldfish became the victim of a family dispute. his common law wife apparently lost it when they had a fight.

they told the ntsb they were focused on a new computer program that arranges crew schedules. they say they did not monitor the airplane during their talk. >> i don't really know that we can say that passenger safety was threatened because our system has a lot of safe guards in it. in other words, there's something there to keep them from running into another airplane, a collision avoidance system, air traffic controllers separating aircraft. the airplane was flying under control, the auto pilot on course. so the passengers' lives i wouldn't say would be threatened in this circumstances. >> just because we have backup systems in place does not excuse their negligence. when you miss an airport by 150 miles and fail to contact atc, in my personal opinion, you're endangering the lives of those passengers. >> delta airlines, which owns northwest suspended the pilots and says they violated the rules. >>> nasa is close to taking a big step into the future of space exploration. leer at this live book. this is a new rocket sitting on the launchpad ready for liftoff maybe from this hou

the ntsb has cited pilot fatigue in the case of numerous accidents. they say that since 1990, 260 fatalities have been attributed to pilot fatigue. most recently, you remember the crash in buffalo earlier this year, the ntsb attributed once again pilot fatigue as an issue with of that crash. by the way, we may be looking in the future -- i hope we are -- at adjusting the flight times/doody time regulations. for half a century, those regulations have been virtually untouched. -- adjusting the flight time/ duty time regulations. a think tank was put together, comprise the various concerns. airline management, of course, was there. pilots were represented, and i had a series of meetings, and recommendations were made, and the faa is in the process of looking at regulations -- neil: that is all good. i'm just wondering -- let's say they go through with this whole idea. would it be in the cockpit? would you come out into a first- class or coach and put your feet up? how would that be done? >> that remains to be seen. we would not even be talking about this

the ntsb interviewed them for five hours. during the flight wednesday, air traffic controllers could not reach them for more than an hour. police met the plane when it landed safely they asked flight attendants to keep passengers in their seats while they checked the pock cockpit. an airline spokes person says the company has sent the passenger $500 travel vouchers. they're also reviewing, though possible delay by the faa in notifying the military about this incident. fighter jets were at two locations but never took off. northwest airlines says it is cooperating in conducting its own investigation. >>> the folks in orange park, florida will be paying their respects to somer thompson at a viewing scheduled to start in about half an hour. there will be a memorial service tomorrow for this little 7-year-old girl. and take a look at what it's outside of her home this morning just all kinds of symbols of love for this family and this child. yesterday the neighborhood held a festival kind of. it was really a fund-raiser for the fa

an ntsb spokesperson is looking into whether the pilot fell asleep. northwest is part of delta airlines issue ad statement saying it is cooperating with the faa and the ntsb in their investigation as well as conducting our own internal investigation. the pilots have been released from active flying pending the completion of these investigations. passengers were horrified when they landed and found out what had been going on. would you want to know if there was a problem on your flight? or is ignorance bliss for you? call us right now. 1-877-tell-hln. you can also text us. text the word views and your comment standard text rates apply. >>> one person was killed. another eight injured after an army blackhawk helicopter crashed into a navy ship. it happened on yesterday evening as service members propelled down a rope from the helicopter to the ship. it happened during a joint training mission between the navy and the army. michelle obama took part in a breast cancer awareness event at the white house this afternoon. she and jill biden both spoke. then t

you know what, the passengers didn't even know anything had happened and an ntsb spokesperson said ilt's looking into whether the pilots fell asleep. they made a statement saying they're cooperating with the ntsb and as well conducting their own internal investigation. p the pilots have been relieved from active flying pending the completion of these investigations. >>> the state has lifted their mandatory order because they have less vaccines in new york. >>> this morning they have formally asked them to extradite fugitive roman polanski. polanski has been a wanted man in the united states for more than 30 years after he pled guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. he was arrested in switzerland last month. >>> a bridge and a pipeline collapsed on a train. one was dead, six others were injured. the train was headed for mumbai. >>> sources say after a meeting at the white house, senate democratic leaders may be leaning toward a public option but the state could opt out if they choose. they don't like the public option, but many dems believe it's the likely way to fix the system.

an ntsb spokesman says they are looking into whether the pilots had fallen asleep. northwest is part of delta air lines. they issued a statement saying, quote, they are cooperating with faa and ntsb as well as conducting our own internal investigation. the pilots have been relieved from active flying pending the completion of these investigations. let's talk more about this, what happened possibly with this northwest flight. i want to go to a former pilot and 30 year aviation industry veteran. rob is joining me on the phone. rob, i have to ask you based upon your 30 years veteran hunch here, when you hear a possibility of them having this heated discussion about airline policy versus falling asleep, what's your hunch? >> first of all, let me correct one thing. i'm still an active pilot, only a former corporate pilot. >> forgive me. >> certainly the tapes that record all the conversations in the cockpit are going to pretty much prove these two guys fell asleep. that's the simple answer. the real question is why did that happen? what was their duty day like prior to t

during wednesday's flight, the ntsb interviewed the pilot and co-pilot yesterday and may interview flight attendants yesterday. they asked the flight attendants to keep passengers in their seats while they checked who was in the cockpit. possibility of the faa notifying the military. noo rad scrambler fighter jets that never took off. northwest is cooperating and doing its own investigation. >>> a raging wildfire is forcing 85 people to evacuate their homes. near santa cruz, california, conditions are making it difficult for firefighters. it's only about 20% contained. authorities do not know what started that fire. >>> people have given more than 1,000 tips to detectives, searching for the killer of a little girl. authorities in florida say they still don't know what happened to 7-year-old somer thompson on her way home from school last week. over the weekend, neighbors raised more than $18,000 so somer's mom doesn't have to go back to work right away. >> if it were me, i don't see how she could go back to work so soon. she has bills to pay, she has a car payment. she has other children

. >> after the investigation into the accident, the ntsb issued a report on the work of the air traffic controllers that night war. they had done a casual and sloppy job of directing the pilots and i was their guidance that led the pilots into the fog that caused the crash that night. >> at 6:00 p.m., the white house says leaving afghanistan is not an option. the latest in is increasingly contentious and public debate. why is this costly project about to be torn out? and hundreds are laid off. in protest today, what they believe is the chancellor's motivation. >> this is abc7 news at 6:00 p.m. on your side. >> eight years after american troops arrived in afghanistan, insurgent attacks are as brazen as ever. >> an alarming number of u.s. troops were killed over the weekend it put an -- a hard edge over the ability to end hostilities in afghanistan. >> a lot of debate going on at the pentagon and white house right now. in just the first five days of october, there have been more deaths than in all of october last year. violence is up 60% and the call for the and to the war is -- for the e

an ntsb spokesperson says that it's looking into whether the pilots fell asleep. northwest is part of delta airlines. it issued a statement saying that it's cooperating with the faa and ntsb in their investigation as well as conducting our own internal investigation. now the pilots have been relieved from active flying pending the completion of these investigations. >>> new this morning, the u.s. has formally asked switzerland to extradite director and fugitive roman polanski. that's the word from swiss officials. polanski has been a wanted man in the united states for more than 30 years after he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. he fled the country before his sentencing. he was arrested in switzerland last month. >>> the 7-year-old florida girl whose body was found in a landfill got into a fight in school the day she disappeared. according to a police report somer thompson's sister brought up the fight on the way home from school and somer got upset and ran off. that's the last time they saw her. her mom spoke to the killer. >> i want you to

they told the ntsb they were focus odd a new computer program that arranges cruise schedules. they did not monitor the airplane during their talk. >> i don't really know we can say that passenger safety was threatened because our system has a lot of safeguards in it. there's something that is there to keep them from running into another airplane. there's a collision avoidance system aboard all aircraft, there's air traffic controllers separating aircraft. the airplane was flying under control of the auto pilot on course. the passengers' lives wouldn't have been threatened in in circumstance. >> because we have backup system in place does not excuse their negligence. when you miss an airport by 150 miles and fail to contact act, in my personal opinion you're endangering the lives of passengers. >> delta airlines us spended the pilots. it says the offense violating airline policy. delta sent passengers a $500 travel voucher for the inconvenience in that flight. >>> the health care reform roller coaster is taking another turn. harry reid will club a public option in the senate bi

the ntsb says the controller should have notified the pilot of traffic if his path. he had already handed off the plane. an faa dispalestinian arrestee board is deciding his fate. >>> we are rembering a local icon this morning. the founder of ben's chili bowl has died. >> ben ali died overnight. we'll learn more about the man who became a local legend. >>> we have warm temperatures across the area. temperatures latetoday will soar into the low 80s. i'll have all the details on your forecast. and we'll look at the weekend. julie wright will be in with a look at your on-time traffic as well. we'll be back right after the break.  you've got a strawberry pop-tart, but i've got a warm, fresh baked strawberry toaster strudel. see the difference? mmmm. i do. (announcer) pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. that, on the list of things kids love, our party pizzas have just passed toy robots. awkward. kids love totino's party pizzas. >>> d.c. has lost a local icon. >> the founder of ben's chili bowl has died as ben ali passed away wedne

the ntsb says sleep apnea has been found to be a factor in accidents. the fda and other transportation agencies say they are working on discussing fatigue problems. >>> a jet coming into atlanta landed on a taxiway instead of a runway monday night. if another plane had been there, a crash could have been catastrophic. the faa is investigating this. the delta flight was carrying 194 people and declared a medical emergency and was given permission to land on a different runway but it landed on a taxiway that runs parallel to a runway. delta says both pilots have been removed from flight duty until the investigation is complete. >>> a man who relies on a service dog to get around is running into trouble here. arthur schwartz is an iraq war veteran with no car and every time he boards a bus he is bracing for a fight. this is one of the stories that's getting a lot of attention on our website, cnn.com. let's talk to melissa long about that. i thought if you have a need for a service dog it shouldn't be a problem. >> whether or not it's a visible need is the

and the ntsb and the pilots union are against that. because they're saying, look, the pilots are deserving some privacy in the cockpit. and really, we don't want to make the use of video or the use of cockpit voice recorders as kind of a monitoring tool. we want to preserve it only as a crash investigation tool. and just to respond to the point about lawsuits, i believe if the victims -- if the passengers had been injured in this case, they would have a very solid lawsuit, regardless of any disclaimers on their tickets. the thing is, i don't think the passengers had injuries, because they didn't even know what the pilots were doing. >> exactly. real quick, john, about cameras, monitoring, what's going on in the cockpit, do you think that will fly legally? >> it's after the fact. the point of the matter is, you need to prevent this from happening in the first place. that's somehow getting in touch with the pilots and wake them up. if it means waking them up through some buzzer, vibrator, wake them up. if it means they're distracted, the

. >>> the ntsb is getting information off a cockpit voice recorder from the plane that over shot its destination by 150 miles. northbound flight 188 flu from san diego to minneapolis, but instead of landing in minneapolis, it kept going. now, one pilot is responding to speculation that he fell asleep. tom foreman reports. >> reporter: from the time it passed over denver, flight 188 had air traffic troelers in the dark. for an hour and 18 minutes not one response to the plane or calls from the ground. the pilot says nobody was asleep. >> no arguments took place. >> reporter: that leaves plenty of troubling questions. first, even with the plane traveling out of contact more than 500 miles an hour for more than an hour, military officials have now confirmed to cnn that they were not contacted by the faa until the plane had passed over the city of minneapolis. at that time, the military scrambled to launch at least four fully armed f-16 fighters, but that was so late they never got off the ground before the airliner was finally contacter. >> reporter: passengers say throughout the proces

the ntsb interviewed the pilot and co-pilot yesterday and it plans to interview flight attendants today. police met the plane after it landed safely. they asked flight attendants to keep passengers in the seat while they checked the cockpit. also under review a possible delay by the faa in notifying the military about this. fighter jets never took off. northwest airlines is cooperating and doing their own investigation in that story. >>> more than 160 people were killed in the bloodiest attacks in baghdad in more than two years. at least 540 people were hurt yesterday when two suicide car bombs targeted government buildings. president obama called the attacks outrageous, but iraq's prime minister said the bombings would not derail the elections in january. he promised to punish those responsible for this attack. >>> people have given more than 1,000 tips to detectives searching for the killer of a little girl. florida authorities say they don't know what happened to 7-year-old summer thompson on her way home last week. over the weekend neighbors raised more than $18,000 so her mom does

. >> the ntsb is getting off of a cockpit voice recorder from a plane that overshot the destination by 150 miles. one plane flew from san diego to minneapolis. instead of landing there in minneapolis, it kept going. one pilot is responding to speculation that he fell asleep. tom foreman reports. >> from the time it passed over denver, flight 188 had air traffic controllers in the dark. for an hour and 18 minute there was not one radio call from the plane, not one response to calls from the ground. tonight, one of the pilots said they were not asleep as some have speculated. >> nobody was asleep in the cockpit. and no arguments took place. >> but that leaves plenty of trouble. first, even with this plane traveling out of contact, more than 500 miles per hour for more than an hour military officials have now confirmed to cnn that they were not contacted by the faa until the plane had passed over the city of minneapolis. at that time the military scrambled to launch at least four fully armed f-16 fighters. but that was so late they never even got off of the ground before the airliner was

the pilots told the ntsb they were focused on a new computer program that arranges crew schedules and didn't monitor the plane during their long talk. >> these pilots were simply not paying attention for a period of time. is that a serious offense? it is. it's not one that i think put the lives of those people in jeopardy. somebody is always supposed to be watching the airplane. that's your first order of duty. that's your first priority. there really is no excuse. no reason to allow it to go to this point. should not have happened. >>> the pilot said they didn't realize their mistake until the flight attendant called the cockpit before they were supposed to land to ask what was up and they were over eau claire, wisconsin, by that point. delta owns northwest and suspended the pilots and said the offense violates airline policy and may cost the pilots their jobs. passengers were sent a $500 travel voucher for their inconvenience. >>> the former miami dolphins quarterback is a college football analyst and got in trouble for a remark he made while promoting espn's coverage of a nascar ra

now the pilots told the ntsb that they were focused on a new computer program that arranges schedules, crew schedules. they did not monitor the airplane during their talk. >> these pilots were simply not paying attention for a period of time, and is that a serious offense? it is. but it's not one that i think put the lives of those people in jeopardy. >> you're always supposed to maintain situational awareness and somebody is always supposed to be watching and flying the airplane. that's your first order of duty. that's your first priority. there really is no excuse, no reason to allow it to go to this point. should not have happened. >> well rng the pilots say they didn't realize their mistake until a flight attendant called the cockpit five minutes before they were supposed to land. by then they were flying over wisconsin. delta airlines which owns northwest, suspended the pilots. it says it violates airline policy and may cost the pilots their job. delta sent passengers a $500 travel voucher for the inconvenience. >>> the health care reform roller coaster is taking another turn. se

the ntsb says the bus company was connected with a charter group that had been shut down for safety violations and the bus had passed inspection despite having a bad tire. that tire was underinflated and investigators think that contributed to the crash. >>> a new calendar is poking fun at stereotypes and making some people a little uncomfortle. the hot mormon muffins calendar has pin ins of moms in the mormon church. each month include as must have minute recipe. not everyone likes it, though. >> there's so many people that find it they're upset about it, and i don't see what the big deal is. i just think it's kind of camp pi. >> i think it's inappropriate, both men and women. there are certain standards that we have. >> i think they have a right to their own way. >> i think it's disgusting how people are trying to promote pornography and disgusting material. >> calendar's creator has been thrown out of the mormon church. the church refused to comment on the calendar. >>> and these are available for purchase, is that right? >> i think so. >> sacri-licious. talking about the muffins. we have d

the ntsb may interview flight attendants today. police met the plane after it landed safely and asked the flight attendants to keep passengers in their seats while they checked who actually was in the cockpit. also under review a possible delay by the faa in notifying the military about it. northwest airlines says it is cooperating and doing its own investigation. >>> new this morning, an 18-year-old woman who turned up in new york city two weeks ago with amnesia has now been identified. her name is kacie peterson. her father says it's not the first time she's disappeared and lost her memory. experts talked with our sister network, cnn, about what might have happened. >> psychiatrists would call this a disassociative state where there are certain memories that are so upsetting to someone you separate them out and sort of compartmentalize these memories in your brain and block things out. >> her father says she's been living with a family friend since her mother died. he says that their relationship has been difficult. he is on the