Originally Posted by
CorpJetJock
Heard this morning from a close source to the investigation, that an uncoordinated reaction to a mistake is going to be the final determination. I have been told that the copilot who was flying, asked the captain to select flaps down. In reaching around/over the pedestal to do so, the captain inadvertently hit G/A sending the auto throttles to max. The aircraft momentarily pitched up and the copilot pushed his yoke full nose down in reaction sending the aircraft into a dive as the engines continued to spool up. The captain grabbed his yoke and without calling that he was taking control yanked back on his yoke in opposition to the copilots force. Apparently enough opposing force caused the shear pin to shear, and the captain lost his input. Electric trim was attempted by the captain and some amount of throttle reduction was enacted, but it was too late the aircraft was far outside it's control envelope at way too low of an altitude to recover. It will be VERY interesting to hear more documented details, not sure when it will be out. So sad, crew coordination and basic flying skills still overshadow technology and knowledge of it.
not saying some of this could not be right, but the exact same thing was said a few weeks already. Also if the pilots make different inputs the controls will disconnect from each other, but the left side will still work independently from the right side, so the captain would not have lost his input.