Originally Posted by MickG0105
I have not yet found one commercial pilot who would have pressed on under similar circumstances. From an admittedly small but highly experienced pool, all of them have made it clear that they would have returned to Denpasar.
But what would
you have done? The aeroplane is already airborne. By the time they had sorted the issue out, finally, they were probably 1/3 of the way to Jakarta. No ILS on 09 at Bali (ILS better for Unreliable Airspeed approach); weather at Bali? Both engines running OK, the aeroplane is under control (albeit with the stick shaker going). It is not about to drop out of the sky. It doesn't mind where it is landed. Even doing the 180 back to Bali would have used, effectively, 35 track miles. Even the organisational aspects with ATC, reprogramming the FMS (assuming one pilot is handflying) all add up to increasing workload. I wasn't there, but I can understand the decision to keep going on to Jakarta.
Originally Posted by MickG
It was interesting that the JT43 PIC appears to have noted that none of the three NNCs he ran contained the instruction “Plan to land at the nearest suitable airport”.
I'd be interested to see what Lion Air company policy states on such matters.
Let's be realistic. What could it say? Cover every possible contingency with a directive for the crew to follow? Of course not. It certainly wouldn't cover this particular scenario. It seems half the world didn't even know about MCAS, let alone an operator putting out directives about what pilots should do if it goes rogue.