Originally Posted by
vilas
Aircraft wasn't doing what he wanted? That's a joke. It exactly did what he asked. If he didn't know how to ask then it's his fault. It's mentioned in his earlier checks that he has a habit to select something in a hurry. Click, click doesn't work unless you know what is happening and what you want to do. A/C is diving, thrust has hit climb, speed is increasing, you don't know what to do with AP. OK slam the thrust closed, knock the AP off and level off.
Sorry. I should've been more clear. It was doing exactly as he asked it to do- just not what he intended it to do. I agree that the initial problem was entirely his fault (pressing EXPD instead of APPR). We've all pushed the wrong button at some point. He had an incident because of what happened after the mistake was realised.
Originally Posted by
vilas
But then it wouldn't be called Airbus but perhaps B MAX. Boeing is conventional but still they crashed it in SFO, nobody had any idea what conventional ATHR was doing, another in Dubai go around they had no idea what they needed to do for touch down GA. NTSB, FAA asked Boeing to have look at thrust hold. They will keep looking but aren't going to do anything. Pilot flying has to learn and remember.
Look Airbus is Airbus it's easy but definitely different. Guy who transitions on to it has to learn about it. What ATHR does or doesn't is not a secret it's there in the manual, it's taught. What about the PM why didn't he do something? Perhaps he also had no idea. This is the problem with CRM. Unless copilot is well trained he is not going to overrule the more experienced captain. There was only one problem the capt didn't know how to cancel EXPED, period. Had he pulled any FCU button the flight would have ended without any excitement.
I stand by my comment. No design is perfect. The fact is that disconnecting autothrust is usually a two step process. Boeing, Douglas etc have a system that isn't that broken. Airbus decided to fix it, and it sometimes leads to unnecessary confusion.
As an aside vilas, if you recall, I've long thought reading FMAs aloud was a silly idea- to put it mildly. I was wrong. I've had a come-to-Jesus moment that involved some paperwork. Lesson learned.