Originally Posted by
awair
This was a factor in the Kegworth 737 accident. So yes, it would be good to know.
- The ‘N1 equalisation function’ was not well-known by crew.
- The ‘bad’ engine was causing the good engine to fluctuate similarly.
- Shutting down the good engine (splitting the thrust levers) turned off the ‘feature’, resulting in a confirmation bias that the correct engine had been identified.
There were multiple other factors, but this definitely did not help.
As is often the case, we are unaware of what we need to know before the wake-up event.
Is there a different Kegworth 737 accident? The one I see, from 1989, was that there was smoke in the cabin and they didn't understand a difference in air supply from earlier models and they shut down the engine they thought supplied bleed air. The remaining engine had been producing smoke as it had lost part of a outer panel of a fan blade. The autothrottle played a part as with the one engine shutdown apparently the throttle setting reverted and was lower than the autothrottle, leading to a reduction of vibration and a reduction of smoke and the pilots concluding they had got the correct one. I don't see that equalization is in the mix, but there may be another incident?