Originally Posted by
oggers
Call it what you will, you will never understand this accident if you do not examine all the facts. But my point is really just the Ethiopian Transport Minister claims the crew carried out the Boeing procedure, whilst the interim report shows unequivocally that they did not.
In fact, their adherence to 'normal' procedures immediately after takeoff may well have set themselves up for the fatal endgame:
They got the stick shaker almost immediately after takeoff, but he tried to engage the autopilot 4 times while it was still shaking!
They retracted the flaps while the stick was still shaking!
They never brought the engines back from TO thrust.
If they had left the flaps in the TO position while troubleshooting, they could have trimmed the airplane normally throughout the flight. Depending on autothrottle mode, it may have brought the thrust back to maintain the flaps limit speed (228 kt?).