Originally Posted by
Rwy in Sight
@
giggitygiggity lonewolf , An amateur here but I have seen the CoML several times. I was fascinated by the line: "always use the appropriate level of automation". So as
giggitygiggity suggested once they understood they were behind the aircraft asking the autopilot to sort the situation out for them why wouldn't be a rational choice?
Originally Posted by
Check Airman
You can't get full spoiler extension with the AP on in the A320.
+ the automation doesn't ever "sort the situation out" - only the crew do that. What the automation can do is buy them space (capacity) to sort the situation out - but only once they've offloaded basic tasks appropriately to the automation - all of which takes even more capacity to achieve.
In this case, either they were not fully aware of how dire the situation really was or they didn't have the capacity to rationally sort it. Maybe both in this case.
Clearly, they seem to have believed it was all under control as they turned down many chances to throw it away while still on the first approach and have a think before trying a second approach. That's the real worry of it all.