For instructors who teach CRM, TEM and MCC courses for cadets

[Judd]

The Captain was aggressive and demeaning to the F/O earlier in the flight which might have prevented the F/O actually taking control later on.

Exactly how does the unhappy F/O take control from the aggressive captain? The manuals don't tell you apart from weak motherhood statements. Judging by the cockpit gradient described in the report, the captain is not going to meekly allow the F/O to take control. There would doubtless be a struggle for control unless the F/O was able to belt the captain over the head as a last resort.

In fact this nearly did happen years ago in a South Pacific airline when the F/O (a former military pilot gutsy character) threatened the equally belligerent captain with the cockpit crash axe if he (the captain) proceeded with his plan of descending IMC below a terrain height restriction. The F/O had earlier warned the captain several times about the height restriction only to be rudely rebuffed. The crash axe proved a great equaliser. It also proved the veracity of the expression that actions speak louder than words.