I have read most of the official report and about half of this thread, so apologies if I am going over old ground.
Two observations about HUDs, (which I have not used myself):
The one in this report is monochromatic. There s no blue for sky, brown for ground. The user cannot glance at the HUD to see if one is pitching up or down, the actual + or - of the pitch graduations have to be read and interpreted? The barbers pole on the speed scale is not red but the same colour as everything else, (albeit a fuller hashed line), so an impending overspeed does not stand out either.
The HUD presentation is different to the ADI. We all started by flying single engined Cessna’s or equivalent, with the standard “artificial horizon” instrument. The vast majority of our total flying hours have been spent looking at the familiar blue for sky, brown for ground presentation, and bank information to ascertain our attitude. FlyDubai’s SOP was to always use the HUD, but as I understand it, they only flew a small number approaches one day in a SIM to learn the HUD, and that was it? “OK, you’re fully qualified and practised to use the HUD for all flight operations in all weathers from now on”. Really?
Hell yes, blame the pilots!.....................should not be conceived by anyone that this was in any way an acceptable level of performance from a trained, professional flight crew. Illusions and fatigue are always going to be there - that is not an excuse to smash an airplane nose-first into the ground, along with all its contents.
On the contrary, we need to blame pilots a lot more, training and selection of crew should be a million times more restrictive and intense. It shouldn't be anyone who has money and can pass some ridiculous tests gets to be crew
Totally agreed, but it is not necessarily a given pilot’s fault. No pilot starts their training wanting to be a bad pilot.
I agree, and have always said that
training does need to be vastly improved. I have been amazed to witness some very poor flying in the SIM from experienced Captains of wide-body aircraft. Much of recurrent SIM checks are a tick in the box if you were vaguely within limits and move on to the next exercise. Very tellingly, if the CAA are sitting in during a SIM, one has to absolutely get it right - near enough is not a pass in those situations.
F/O should have yelled out "I HAVE CONTROL! LET GO OF EVERYTHING NOW!", worse case punched the Cap's lights out and immediately taken control. With 40 deg pitch down, speeding towards the ground with engines at full power is not a time to be giving advice and "no, no, no"ing or pulling half halfheartedly on the yoke at the same time the other guy is pushing down. It's time to knock out the dude that's going to kill us all, engines idle and pull out of the freaking dive.
Absolutely, of course he should yes, and it quite obviously should have been an automatic reflex in this particular situation. All I would say is that we are not trained in taking control. We are just told to do it - in text somewhere in the manuals, but during training, F/Os are never actually put into the situation of having to take control from the Captain*. It can be a big deal to take over from a Captain, somebody maybe very senior to oneself, and whom the company has deemed to be good enough to be a Captain, while they’ve decided you’re not.
*The only time we do practise taking control is for an incapacitation, or instrument failure, which is easy because then there is no argument from the Captain - you don’t have to shout at him and wrestle the controls from him and have a disagreement; because he is ‘unconscious’ or willing.
Cabin crew are given actual instruction on how to deal with angry or dangerous passengers - how to deconflict the tension, how to physically act, and how to speak, and they practise it. If the other pilot was going to kill me, I would most certainly take over, (and have done so on two occasions), but what I am saying is; we have never been
trained in this, merely told. It is a big deal to become a Captain - many don’t make it - so the image of a Captain is of one who has proved they have got what it takes. Therefore it is also a big deal to take command over the commander, so this should be trained, not merely written somewhere in the manuals.
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