Hi Folks. Just joined this thread with not having read it all but I have been browsing. There seems to be little doubt that the A/T malfunction was the fault which was the precursor to the crash. Is that correct?
If so, and I apologise if that is not a correct assumption, then the A/T was not the >cause < of the crash.No auto throttle fault (because it not required for dispatch or flight) should be of the least concern to the crew.
Certainly that is my experience of 10,000 plus hours on the 737 all variants (except the MAX) and I would love to fly that of course. No auto-thrust? Set manually. Split thrust - disconnect and set the correct power. One T/L moves when it shouldn't? Put it back and if it doesn't behave, disconnect. So I am not sure where all the discussion about the A/T is going here. Seems that the most likely scenario is that a thrust asymmetry occurred ( given its history on this plane it would have been expected and not a surprise) which would cause the autopilot to put in aileron to counteract the thrust imbalance. [The rudder cannot act in this way so is not involved] This would be blindingly obvious to the pilots because the thrust levers are no longer aligned and the ailerons are displaced. If it wasn't noticed, which seems very strange, then the A/P hits the authority limit at about 25 degrees of aileron and then AP disconnects. A rapid roll would ensue. The remedy is again part of our training ( I am assuming that the people reading this haven't been trained in such a situation) which would be to set symmetrical thrust and roll wings level using full aileron.
I am being lazy here but there are so many pages that I haven't found this mentioned yet. Looking forward to the latest information which must be known by now. The memory card for the VCR? Hard to find in deep water in mud I would think but that is a terrible shame since there lies the complete answer.