Originally Posted by
Uplinker
I am sure many of us have flown past TOD, at one time or another either because we were held up by ATC or were momentarily distracted for some reason. Airbus aircraft will say "Decelerate", and in most cases it is very easy to gently regain the profile. Even if all that fails, ATC will help by adding track miles at your request or allowing an orbit - and ATC advised the pilots several times in this incident.
None of these options were taken by the pilots. Maybe there was a fumes event in the cruise which the pilots did not detect, so they did not don their oxygen masks, and were mentally befuddled.
Ah, Sikpilot, you beat me to it
Missing the TOD is not an issue. It occured to me dozens of times within 35 years of flying, for many reasons (ATC, cockpit or cabin duties, or simply my own error, etc). Many ways of path recovering are available. Increasing speed, speedbrakes, thrust reverser (DC8), early extension of landing gear, etc.
And if nothing of the above works, one has to ask ATC for vectors or a 360° turn.
I can see no reason for such a ass over one’s head approach. Even a student pilot having his first lesson on a Cessna 172 would catch this. In my own case I’m still sticking to the idea that these guys were physically unfit for flying that day. Or only the captain was unfit, and the FO was a ‘‘yes sir’’ robotic monkey, which is often an occurence in this part of the world.