How one confused pilot killed over 200 people..

[Steve1968LS2]

Wow.. just wow..

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...ce-447-6611877

Talk about suspensful reading.. too bad it was a real tragedy.. all because one co-pilot somehow forgot the basics of flying.. what a cluster fk and none of those people needed to die in a perfectly functioning aircraft

[David Pozzi]

Wow, amazing to read that!

[Boss 5.0]

horrifying.....

[GregWeld]

That transcript was actually hard to read (emotionally) because you want to yell at the guy!

Okay -- I'm walking to Europe for the Monaco Grand Prix in May.... no way I'm flying now!

[skatinjay27]

indeed a compelling read! gave me goosebumps after reading it...

[James OLC]

As a guy whos been flying something around 10,000 miles a month lately it scares the heck out me that in addition to the mechanical complications of flight I'm still ultimately at the mercy of guys like this.

And for what it's worth, while the copilot ultimately crashed the plane through his incompetence, there were two other huge human errors that ultimately brought the plane down - not looking at the weather they were heading in to (and having the radar set wrong) and the captain heading for a nap as he plane entered a bad storm, leaving the most jr pilot in command,

[Steve1968LS2]

Originally Posted by James OLC

As a guy whos been flying something around 10,000 miles a month lately it scares the heck out me that in addition to the mechanical complications of flight I'm still ultimately at the mercy of guys like this.

And for what it's worth, while the copilot ultimately crashed the plane through his incompetence, there were two other huge human errors that ultimately brought the plane down - not looking at the weather they were heading in to (and having the radar set wrong) and the captain heading for a nap as he plane entered a bad storm, leaving the most jr pilot in command,

Actually the second most senior pilot let the low guy keep command when the Captain left..

I like how Boeing ties the controls together.. this "averaging" deal seems flawed.

[David Pozzi]

It isn't good when one guy is pulling full up on the controls and the other guy doesn't even know it! Really there were 3 flying that plane, two co-pilots and the computer!
I'm sure they have a gps speedometer on the plane somewhere but there is information overload if you ever look in a cockpit.

[Simmo]

It's quite common for a Second Officer to have control of the aircraft (above a given altitude), but the chain of command is always Captain - First Officer - Second Officer. So the SO can "have the controls" (ie manipulate the aircraft) but the responsibility of the trajectory of the aircraft lies with the guy in the left seat (Captain or FO in this case). So here we have the Captain Dubois, FO Robert & SO Bonin in that order.

Bonin appears to have been so overloaded he's load shedded to the point that he is relying on ab initio skills to attempt to recover the aircraft. Scary stuff but it happens, even in experienced crew. The trick is to manage the situation so it doesnt get even close to that level of workload. In some parts of the world guys can be in that seat with little over a commercial pilots licence so its not surprising he was struggling.

As low cost carriers continue to dominate, and the bean counters continue to shave every margin (and people continue to fly low cost to save $3 and go without a biscuit) I personally cant see the situation getting any better. The "cream" if you like, will no longer choose aviation as a career as it is no longer viable. {end of rant} lol.

I didnt realise Airbus' equalise the control inputs in alternate law, thats scary s*it.

[Spiffav8]

Originally Posted by Steve1968LS2

Actually the second most senior pilot let the low guy keep command when the Captain left..

It's not a good idea to transfer control from one pilot to the other during an emergency. We actually train as "flying" and "non-flying" pilot for all scenarios. It's been proven that the transfer has caused more problems than it's solved.