FullWings
Interesting as both cases had fire warnings. In the case of the BA 777, it was hardly a "high speed" reject, I believe they did not even reach 80kts. Yet the crew got so hyperfocused on procedures, none of the 3 crewmembers on the flightdeck heard the cabin trying to call them. Very good "situational awareness".
Again, SOP's are never bullet proof as we are all human. It is an balancing act between focus and time spent to do an action deliberately, and time lost to do something else. They are nice up to the moment we realise that we are under stress and then the confusion begins and precious time is lost like crazy. Boeing has realised this, there is no need for a "military war zone" approach (which is where all the memory items come from) and Boeing has slowly begun changing many many memory items to "non-memory items" and is continuing to do so even today with the go-around call changes (the call makes you focus on flap, an SOP that created an unwanted side effect we focus less on thrust setting)
The autothrottle disconnect is the most fantastic example. AT disconnect IS a necessity, hence an SOP, but it shows how human we all are. The big fun begins when you give a fire warning at 40kts, or even at 10 kts with the engines spooling up to TO power, FO PF and his hands on the throttles. You can discuss parking brakes as much as you like, add it to the procedures, memory items...
So be carefull when you want to put something in an SOP. It's a "be carefull what you wish for" situation. You can make as many SOP's as possible, it won't help you a single thing if you don't teach people to take a distance from the situation. Because the adrenaline will get you and everybody reacts differently. Look at the BA Vegas incident.
And if all goes well and you want to set the parking brake, who cares, go for it. Who stopped you? The fact it's not an SOP? How is that possible?
If the SOP says to drink your coffee before TOD, you will have to drink it despite of the served temperature. If the SOP says nothing about coffee, drink freely at required temperature, or throw it away if you don't like it. Or get a second one. Or tea. Or water.
Last edited by BraceBrace; 20th September 2021 at 08:03.