Originally Posted by
michaelbinary
So, its that piss easy is it ?.
So 4 professional pilots failed to press a little trim switch to keep the aircraft in trim and killed a few hundred people.
Yes, it really was that easy. As you say, they were all
professional pilots. And what exactly should be our expectations of a professional pilot? I would think that being able to fly their aircraft (and not rely on the automation to do it for them) in the presence of a distraction would be a pretty minimum requirement.
The first and most important step of any aircraft emergency is FLY THE AIRCRAFT. Set the pitch, set the power, check the performance, trim the aircraft. Pretty basic stuff.
Sadly, this has not been the first time, and probably won't be the last time, that one of the primary causes of a fatal accident was because at least one of the pilots was not FLYING THE AIRCRAFT.
As to the question of WHY four professional pilots failed to revert to these basics of airmanship, that should be a major topic of the accident investigation.