Originally Posted by
A-3TWENTY
A lot of people had posted their opinions of what could have happened.
I flew in China for 10 years, being last flight in 2020. I'm not racist, just pragmatic.
The ATC there is crap. Not only the control itself, but also the attitude from ATC to the to pilots. Chinese pilots accept all kind of stupid requests from the ATC without a word. It is almost impossible a Chinese pilot refuse a stupid ATC instruction. Specially if the crew had a 2700 hrs Cpt.
It is well possible that they had an engine failure , request to descend and got a "stand by" as an answer. And they lost speed until the stall. It really would not surprise me at all.
I really think that China lasted a lot without a fatal accident. They had imminent accidents though out this years.
I remember foreign pilots had years of discussions in the cockpit because Chinese pilots flew at night with their radar off, and worst, with cockpit windows covered with newspapers to avoid radiation. Its happened until the day a wide body China Eastern flew into an isolated CB and lost 10000 ft. And so on. Many, but many stories. If you want to know more download flying upside down.pdf from the Internet.
So I really believe this accident had a partnership between ATC and crew. But.... as everything in China we will never know. BTW , probably the boxes were destroyed, but the communication between the plane and ATC wasn't revealed yet. Probably will never be.
Fortunately for all foreign pilots flying in China , it happened with a local crew.
My condolences to all families involved.
[QUOTE=A-3TWENTY;11204388]A lot of people had posted their opinions of what could have happened.
I flew in China the last 15 years and I still fly into China. I don't know if I should call it racist but I sense a lot of expats here seem to have the superiority complex.
Admittedly I have not operated with a mainland Chinese in the seat but I had a few in the jumpseat as "navigator" into non open airports. They seem reasonable when we had discussion about work.
I agree ATC is crap but it is not true to say the locals comply without a word. I can speak the language so I understand everything on the frequency. Often I heard pilots argued with ATC and some got very fiesty. And so you think a 2700 hrs captain from elsewhere will always speak up??? So there are no near mishaps in other parts of the world?? I do not agree with the punitive culture but it has been 10 years without a fatality. It is quite scary if you look at the safety stats of a large European/"Asian" airline but nobody talks about them even when they had a crash. When there is any incident Chinese related everybody jumped on it. When something happened and a local pilot saved the day nobody talks about it.
Having worked in a few companies with diverse workforce and also as a checker, I have seen people with substandard performance from every continet; so is good performance.