Clearly a rushed and high energy approach that should have been thrown away much earlier. Clearly ineffective intervention from P2. Amazing that the speedbrake wasn’t used. The decision to hand fly was a mistake on this occasion as it resulted in workload higher than their capacity. Any experienced operator knows that hitting the glide at 200kts and flap 5 the aircraft will accelerate down the glide. Full speedbrake and probably gear down were required at this point.
Flaps shouldn’t be used for drag and good practice is to only take the next flap setting when within 10kts or so of the min speed for current flap. Asking for flap close to the flap limiting speed is a good warning sign that your approach is going badly.
Some Boeing FDs have a know anomaly subject to a BAB. If a glideslope signal is subject to interference the GS FMA can have a yellow line appear through it and the FDs pitch sharply down. Something I have experienced first hand, and required intervention to disconnect the AP and ignore the FDs until the GS signal restored. Luckily we were visual at the time and were able to continue and stabilise the approach. I wonder if this could have been a contributing factor on this occasion coupled with very poor flight path and every monitoring by both pilots.
Last edited by Propellerhead; 18th Feb 2021 at 06:44.