Originally Posted by
OldnGrounded
I continue to find it disturbing and surprising that more than a few posts are focused on blaming, or at least strongly suspecting, crew error as a primary cause of the Ethiopian crash.
Surely, it should be clear, from all we have learned and discussed in the weeks since that accident, that the crew was faced with a situation that almost any crew would have found very difficult, if not impossible, to deal with successfully. If mistakes were made, they were made in an environment where not making mistakes was extremely unlikely and in which they would never have found themselves if the OEM and the regulatory authority had not made fundamental and extraordinary mistakes in designing and certifying the aircraft. And those entities weren't facing imminent sudden death when they screwed up.
I share exactly the same feelings, too many armchairs pilots ( and even non-pilots) here telling us what the crew should have done KNOWING THE FULL SITUATION IN ADVANCE.
Having myself unfortunately been through an accident , the first thing that comes to your mind is understanding what is happening and this takes a certain time to process . Your mind is rushing at 120% and things like FORDEC and DODAR are not the first things that come to your mind.., and hearing people telling me afterwards what I should have done was not helping at all. A bit of respect for the guys faced with horns , bells and Christmas trees thrown at you unexpectedly. A final remark to those advocating a reduction of power, come on after a stall warning (stick shaker) at less than 1000 Ft AGL ? , or course you will level off and keep the power ,I would argue in ANY airplane, but I am not flying 737s ...After that depends how your mind is prioritizing..