Originally Posted by
fotoguzzi
Yet, the 160 hour pilot suggested going to "manual" one minute after stab trim cutout while the many-hour pilot was still wondering why the electric trim switches were not working after cutout
As a clarification, the FO actually had around 360 hours of total time and about three months of line experience at the time of the accident. The 160-hour reference is to the amount of time he had when he was handed his pilot certificate to sit in the right seat of a 737.
The actual text from the CVR transcript was something along the lines of "Stab Trim Cutout!" repeated twice, after which someone reflexively cutout the power to the stab trim motor (not following any procedure) while the aircraft was grossly out of trim which then set the stage for the final dive. Now if this young FO had called for the "Airspeed Unreliable" checklist early in the game, or the "Runaway Stabilizer Trim" checklist after MCAS kicked in, or advised the Captain to not retract the flaps in the first place, or any number of other deviation callouts as the Captain was mishandling the ship, then I would have less concern about the FO's level of training or experience. But he did not either because of a lack of awareness of what was happening or a lack of assertiveness to correct the Captain. In the end, the result was the same.
That being said, I can't really blame the FO for pursuing his dream of becoming a pilot. If someone let me get a job flying heavy iron while I was that young and with that little amount of experience, I would have jumped at the chance too. And I'm sure the airline was glad to have access to a young, enthusiastic pool of pilot candidates who quite naturally would not demand nearly as much compensation as pilots who had many years and thousands of hours of time under their belt.
It all worked out very well for all concerned..... until it didn't.