Simple question on old 747SP incident...

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by wrench1

If the #1 engine had been retarded to match the low thrust #4 engine, would the aircraft have remained level? Not passing judgement just curious.
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/19-february-1985/

Yes, but all they really needed to do was disconnect the autothrottle autopilot, and retrim the aircraft for the thrust imbalance. LeadSled is correct - nobody was flying the aircraft - they were all busy trying to start an engine while thousands of feet above the restart envelope while expecting the autopilot to do something it was never intended to do. By design, the autopilot on the the older 747s didn't have enough authority to overcome an outboard engine power loss - so that an autopilot hard over would be no worse than an engine failure (remember, we're talking 1970s vintage analog electronics).