was it appropriate for the Captain to make the "Mayday" call???
Who said the
Captain made a Mayday call
From the ATSB release, and the ICAO definitions of "Pan" and "Mayday", at a first glance it would seem the calls made were 100% correct
Of interest will be whether is was the ECAM actions that led to the pitch down, or whether the timing was coincidental and the original message effectively led to the small pitch up / large pitch down. We have a directive about Frozen/Jammed controls, and securing the cabin prior any attempt at release. I am not suggesting that I would ever link this directive to an Airbus Flt Ctrl message and carrying out the ECAM actions (e.g. cycling FCCs), but it will be interesting to see if this comes out after this accident
Something to ponder from now on...
NoD