Originally Posted by
cactusbusdrvr
Those guys fly by rote, they will execute instructions but it can’t be in nonstandard form.
And there's a company/corporate cultural root cause that will likely be whitewashed or glossed over, right?
NTSB determined that the SCT controller’s erroneous instruction to turn left to the assigned heading instead of right began the incident.
Disorientation can happen both inside and outside of a cockpit.
Originally Posted by MajorLemond
Firstly, yes, Atc made the initial error of issuing a left turn, however any pilot with even a moderate shred of situational awareness would query this as it is not logical. Even if you are half asleep when you start winding the heading bug looking for a Hdg of 180 it's immediately obvious that something isn't right as the digits in the FCU window start winding back from an easterly HDG. It was never queried by EVA, just blindly followed.
Back to the cultural point cactusbusdrvr raised.
This takes us back to the old joke/teaching point on making sure to be aware and proactive in communicating with controllers:
What happens when the pilot screws up? The pilot dies.
What happens when the controller screws up? The pilot dies.
As someone pionted out a few posts back, it works best when it's a cooperative/team effort between the flight deck and ATC.