Info from the NWA flight. I don't know the accuracy of the info but it's a portion of the debriefing the pilots submitted. I believe it to be real.
On the Delta/Northwest flight from San Diego to Minneapolis , after passing Denver , the flight attendant called the cockpit to let them know Tim's crew meal was ready. Tim was the "flying pilot" on this leg, so he told his F/O, when the flight attendant brings the meal up, he will step back to use the restroom. When Tim returned, the F/A left the cockpit and he began to eat his crew meal. When a pilot leaves to use the restroom, it is customary for the other pilot to brief him on his return on "any changes", such as altitude, heading, course changes or ATC center radio frequency changes, etc. In this instance, nothing was said, even though the first officer did receive a radio frequency change. The problem that occurred was that the first officer called Air Traffic Control on the new frequency but never received a response. It was an incorrect frequency. It was a Winnipeg Canada Center Frequency.
Now, Denver Center is trying to get a hold of them because they never checked in, the first officer had dialed in the wrong radio frequency. It was Denver ATC who called them so many times. However, there was a shift change at Denver Center and no one briefed the new controller that there was a NORDO aircraft (This means a lost communication aircraft in their airspace. Air traffic control sees the aircraft on their scope but the aircraft is considered "lost".)
Tim told me he heard ATC chatter on the speaker and so never thought they were out of radio range.....but, of course, they were hearing pilots talk on Winnipeg Center . (When pilots hear only silence on the radio for a long while they will ask ATC if they are still there. Most of the time they are but if you don't hear any response you are out of their area and need to find a new frequency. This is very uncommon. With this chatter going on, it appears they were not concerned that they were not being controlled).
Then Tim told the first officer that the new bidding system was horrible and that his November schedule was not what he hoped for. He mentioned that his son was going into the Army in December and he wanted certain days off so he could see him off. The first officer said he could help him, he knew more about the new bidding system. Tim got his lap top out and put it on his left leg and showed the first officer how he bid. He told me he had his laptop out for maybe 2 minutes. Then the first officer said that he would show him how to do it on his laptop. He had his laptop out maximum of 5 minutes.
The flight attendants called the cockpit on the inter-phone and asked when they will arrive. They looked at their navigational screens and were directly over MSP. The pilots had their scopes on the maximum 320 mile range setting, when the first officer called on the frequency, which of course was Winnipeg Center. He saw Eau Claire and Duluth on his screen 320 miles away. They asked where they were and the first officer told them over Eau Claire , which was not even close, but MSP had disappeared from the screen even though they were right over the city because of the 320 mile setting. ( There really is no way to confuse the 320 mile scope setting vs. a 20, 40, 80, or even the 120 mile setting. I don't understand the pilots stating this.)
They were, as you all know, vectored all over the sky to determine if they had control of the aircraft and Tim kept telling the first officer to tell them they have control they want to land at MSP. They landed with 11,000 pounds of fuel (about 2 hours in an A320) and about 15 minutes past schedule, even though they left San Diego 35 minutes late due to an ATC flow restriction.
