I understand/understood that the philosophy of the TWAswitches was: (wait for it)
all the switches were forward for takeoff...everything that needed to be "ON" was forward pointing towards the nose
it makes alot of sense if looked at that way.
TWA was really a pioneer as Pan Am...My TWA interview was the most thorough of any. Discussing windshear scenarios and the then recent DC9 fire with landing at CVG. They have my respect...indeed while flying back home from my TWA interview I sat next to a very nice TWA captain in civies...we talked flying including the book, 'Handling the Big Jets" by davies. He told me that TWA issued it to all pilots...how many airlines did that? He also told me he was called into the chief pilot's office because he landed at Vref plus 21 knots due to wind in KPHL. Chief pilot said, next time divert.
The REAL TWA has Lindbergh in its heritage...he test flew one of the first DC2's out of the highest airport on the route (cheyene I think)...he cut the switches without warning on one engine at or near what we now call V1...the douglas pilot yelled at him "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING"...Lindbergh said, our pilots will fly it here on bad days and nights and an engine failure will be without warning.
they made it around the patch just fine thank you.
And dear non pilot poster concerning yourself witht the boob talk vs the tragedy of the crash...well , we know people died in this crash...we really do. And if we dwelled on it, we wouldn't fly anymore. that' has been tradition since the earliest days of our profession...just check out old movies like, "only angels have wings" and the like.
And I hope you do.
no disrespect is meant to the lost ones...and it is pretty obvious to some of us that if someone had done things right, we wouldn't have this thread at all. But somewhere there was a shortcut.