What an horrendous accident. What the hell was the Captain thinking and doing????????? The visibility and conditions seem perfectly OK for a normal approach and landing, how on earth did he manage to get so far out of shape? Incapacitation, unrecognised ADI failure?
What about company SOPs for stable approaches? Where there any??
Secondly, I’m sorry, I am going to sound very old fashioned here but I cannot believe that anyone - even a 600 hour rookie - thinks it is acceptable and prudent to send text messages while airborne as a pilot of an aircraft, especially when flying a non-autopilot aircraft as PF, and while the other crew member is taking ‘controlled rest’* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why was her phone even switched on during flight?
To those who say this F/O should have said something and taken control; yes, of course she should, but I ask this: F/Os are told they must step in and take control, but what training is given to F/O’s about how to actually do this? Conflict management needs to be actually taught, it is no good just putting everyone through CRM training** and ticking their attendance record. Not every one is comfortable or even able to stand up to an aggressive person - especially if the Captain is a gruff, uncommunicative “gear up shut up” type and/or the F/O is perhaps towards the meeker end of the spectrum. Not everyone has had the life experience of facing down bullies in bars etc.
*Yes, I know it wasn’t really ‘controlled rest’, I am being charitable here.
**CRM training usually consists of a morning in a classroom watching some powerpoint presentations and answering questions such as “What is CRM?”, while most in the room are trying to get finished and go home as soon as possible. On more than one occasion I have heard attendees say ‘don’t ask any questions, we want to get this finished ASAP and beat the traffic to get home’. And those difficult Captains who most need to learn about CRM mysteriously never seem to be on these courses. I have never seen any practical training given in conflict management or how to deal with a difficult Captain.