Quotes(in black) from a Flight International article based on NTSB information.....
"The first officer, who was flying, replied “number two” – an apparent reference to the right-hand powerplant – and the captain also said, “number two”.
According to the quote above, the captain repeated what the F/O said(unknown if he based his reply on separate analysis). Then according to the quote below, the copilot changed his mind and the captain did as well(unknown what further assessment was made by the captain before he changed his mind).
"According to the transcript, the captain asked the first officer to “read the gauges” to determine which “has the EGT” – the exhaust gas temperature – to which the first officer replied: “It looks like the number one.”The captain then responded, “Number one is gone?”, and the first officer responded: “[It’s] gone, yep…so we have number two.”
“So we have number two, OK,” the captain then remarked."
The captain made this statement to the inquiry.....
"The captain told the inquiry that he thought the left-hand engine had the problem, at first, before changing his mind – based on the aircraft’s yaw and roll motion – and telling the first officer that he thought the right-hand engine was the one affected.
But during his testimony the captain referred to the first officer’s having told him that the number one engine, the left-hand powerplant, had failed.
The captain told investigators that the first officer, which whom he had flown several times, “never makes a mistake”, adding: “If [he] says number one is gone, then number one is gone.”
A bit of a conflict in statements but quite the trusting captain. Based on the CVR recording, it seems quite possible that the captain did change his mind based on what the F/O said, instead of analyzing the problem.
This reminds me of the Kegworth accident when it comes to failed engine identification. To quote the report.....
"The first officer also said that he monitored the engine instruments and, when asked by the commander which engine was causing the trouble, he said 'IT'S THE LE ... IT'S THE RIGHT ONE.', to which the commander responded by saying 'OKAY, THROTTLE IT BACK'."
Once again, no detail on what analysis that captain did, but it does give one the feeling that he may have relied on what the copilot said instead of confirming himself(captain was flying). One really should take extra time to identify a partial engine failure, if time permits. the consequences of a mis-identification can be catastrophic. In addition, a partial failure may not be obvious after thrust has been reduced.
Last edited by punkalouver; 24th Dec 2022 at 23:41.