i'm not saying they COULDN'T have been arguing for 150 miles about FAA policies like they claim.

but its the 78 minutes of radio silence that are troubling. at 520 miles per hour thats actually quite a bit farther than 150 miles, when you do the math.

so what explanations OTHER than sleeping of an FAA policy debate might present themselves for this gap?

- an "X files" kind of time stoppage, wherre the aircraft is suspend in midflight, but does not fall. all clocks stop. a passenger is removed (the head of fox news?) and then the flight is released to continue to its destination . . . calgary . . .er minneapolis

- there were in fact, conversations on the black box tape. but the ghost of richard nixon erased them, as the conversation strayed into matters like watergate . ..

- they were in the bathroom - airline food is notoriously indigestilbe of course

- confusion over the time zone change travelling from california to minnesota