PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Atlas Air 3591 NTSB Public Docket Opened
View Single Post
Old 21st Jul 2020, 13:13
  #160 (permalink)  
Uplinker
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: UK
Posts: 2,508
Received 114 Likes on 70 Posts
A320LGW "If I were the captain’s family I would want answers anyway."

Fair enough. I am not exclusively blaming the Captain, it seems that both pilots were culpable. However, the Captain was the PM, and he was........the captain. So he had two reasons to be monitoring his F/O, and Capt appeared to react slowly in this case, (though it is not very clear to me).

When reading a chart or inputting data, I still glance at the PFD every 10 seconds or so - either mine or his; whichever is closest to my eye-line at the time, and it is rarely out of my peripheral vision. (As we do by checking a car rear-view mirror every 10s or so when driving). In addition, if there was a sudden pitch change, or a sudden change in engine thrust while my eyes were down, I would instantly look up to see what was happening. Ditto if I was making a radio call.

I am curious though, how it is known that the F/O was pushing the yoke and the Captain was pulling? The two are mechanically joined with a shear pin, so would move together until the pin broke, (as happened I believe). Are there force sensors on each yoke to record who was pushing or pulling, and if so how do they work when the shear pin is in?

It also seems to say in the report that the Captain accidentally pressed the TOGA switch. How is it known who pressed the switch?

Last edited by Uplinker; 22nd Jul 2020 at 08:43.
Uplinker is offline