Yes, and on the other hand, had there been an actual config problem and PIC had continued the take-off towards mountains in poor weather and then crashed because the speed brakes were deployed, would we be condemning those actions?
This was clearly not PIC's finest hour, and it would seem that recurrent SIM training in this airline had not focused on practising the basics, such as RTOs. In addition, it would appear that B737 speed-brake lever position switches can be less than precise, so crews are probably used to having to jiggle the damn thing on occasion, (this is certainly my experience of old B737 classics, but this was not an old classic).
When the alleged config warning occurred at V1, PIC would have been go minded, and probably thought a quick jiggle of the speed-brake would stop the alarm. Where it all unraveled though was that the alarm was not stopped and PIC then wasted several seconds thinking about the config alarm rather than continuing or stopping. By V1, the first actions of an RTO must have been started, otherwise the take-off must be continued.
According to the report the crews' knowledge of RTO was not solid, and during briefings I have sometimes started to review RTO reasons and actions, only to be interrupted by PIC, saying "yes, yes, that's all SOPs".
Finally, I do not accept the so-called "startle effect", especially on take-off, when one should be prepared for anything. We are supposed to be trained and prepared for things to go wrong. Good PICs I have observed, go through a silent touch drill of the stopping actions before starting the take-off roll.
Last edited by Uplinker; 26th Jan 2021 at 10:34.