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In some ways, the latest update from the National Transportation Safety Board about Northwest Airlines Flight 188 from San Diego to Minneapolis confirms the worst fears: The pilots just plain weren't paying a lick of attention to flying the airplane.

The NTSB interviewed both pilots, both experienced aviators, who overflew MSP last week and said the captain and first officer say they had laptop computers out and were deep in discussion of a new crew scheduling system launched by Northwest's parent, Delta Air Lines.The first officer was showing the captain how the new system worked, and neither were listening to radio transmissions or even glancing at airplane instruments or messages from company dispatchers.

There's an old saying in aviation: "Flying can be hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror." Automation can make flying a jet a boring task -- set the autopilot and all you have to do is change radio frequencies as you cross the country. Automation has made air travel safer, but complacency in the cockpit will lead to accidents.

I can certainly understand the need to fill some of the time while on autopilot,but what about a good ol' game of Solitaire or some games/books on the iPhone/iPod touch? Couldn't you at least set an alarm/timer to remind you to pay attention? I'm sure there's an app for that.

AMR Corp.'s American Airlines operated jets later found to have substandard repairs, and federal regulators are probing allegations that at least one plane was considered unsafe to fly at normal cruise altitude, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Federal Aviation Administration's latest moves, these people said, indicate the agency is expanding its probe into suspected structural problems with rear bulkheads on a small portion of American's fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jets.

Earlier this year, American took more than a dozen planes out of passenger service, retiring several of them, after finding they had improper bulkhead repairs. FAA inspectors are pursuing allegations from pilots that one of those MD-80s was believed to be in such poor condition that it was ferried without passengers from Dallas to the carrier's Tulsa, Okla., maintenance base at unusually low altitudes to avoid the stress of pressurizing the fuselage during the trip.

I've spent thousands of hours on MD-80s, and more than a few of them are really showing their age. Here's hoping AA gets more 737s in service ASAP.