The Northwest pilots who overflew Minneapolis by more than 100 miles last week were distracted by the use of personal laptops to discuss work schedules, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.
The use of personal laptops in the cockpit is against company policy, the NTSB noted.
"Neither pilot was aware of the airplane's position until a flight attendant called about five minutes before they were scheduled to land and asked for their estimated time of arrival," the NTSB said.
By that time, the plane was somewhere over Wisconsin. The pilots then turned around and eventually landed the plane and its 144 passengers safely in Minneapolis.
The plane reportedly dropped out of radio communication for about 75 minutes while the pilots discussed a new scheduling system as a result of Delta's merger with Northwest.
There was concern that the plane departing San Diego was hijacked, and military jets were on standby to intercept it.