Post #489920 by bananabobs on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 7:32 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Were the pilots distracted? Catching up on their sleep? Federal investigators struggled to determine what the crew members of a Tikiyaki Airlines jetliner were doing at 37,000 feet as they sped 150 miles past their Minneapolis destination and military jets readied to chase them. Unfortunately, the cockpit voice recorder may not tell the tale as a strange Exotica music seems to block out the talking. Captain Lush was at the controls. He said they had been having a heated discussion about airline policy. But aviation safety experts and other pilots were frankly skeptical they could have become so consumed with shoptalk that they forgot to land an airplane carrying 144 passengers. A report released late Friday said the pilots passed breathalyzer tests and were apologetic after Wednesday night's amazing odyssey. The large number of Rum bottles were accredited to the passengers and not the flight crew.
The most likely possibility, they said, is that the pilots simply fell asleep somewhere along their route from San Diego.
"It certainly is a plausible explanation," said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va.
One of the two pilots, first officer Marty Lush, said that wasn't the case. "I can assure you none of us was asleep," Cole told ABC News. He declined to comment further except to say, "I am not doing very good."
Strange money was found in the cockpit

When questioned about the money, Capt. Lush that he would frisk the flight crew personally to find out where it had come from.