At 10:49 AM 11/2/02 -0800, Bill Frantz wrote:

(A number of years ago, there was a case where a pilot, presumably asleep, flew right past Los Angles, over the Pacific ocean, and crashed. ATC was very concerned, but couldn't do anything to wake the pilot.)

Around a year ago a small private jet lost contact over the US. A jet was dispatched, saw iced windows, no response to signals. The plane was on autopilot, eventually crashed in the middle of nowhere. The passengers/pilot are believed to have passed out from anoxia. (The autopilot kept them at high altitude too!) When that trucker kamakazi'd into the state capital in Sacramento last year, they decided to put Jersey barriers up. Hard to do that in the air (Blimps with nets?)