Originally Posted by
Musician
.......Your proposal would not prevent malicious shutdown.
It would not prevent wrong engine shutdown when the crew is convinced they have the correct engine, and thus operate the second switch without further thought.
It may help when the shutdown was commanded as an action slip, but many pilots think that never happened anyway—it's certainly very rare.
But you would run the danger of creating situations where it becomes impossible to shut down an engine due to a computer malfunction; or a situation where the crew thinks they have shut down the engine when it is still running because the system is still waiting for a confirmation they didn't think it would ask for.
As an example, if weight-on-wheels fails, the system might require confirmation when shutting the engines down at the stand when it normally is not required.
Agreed.
Shutting down all engines at the take-off phase of flight is unthinkable to most pilots, and adding layers of electronics between the switches and the FADECs and valves would not improve the robustness, because that would introduce the possibility of malfunctions, leading to uncommanded shut-downs.
Possibly, only possibly; a physical gate moved by the thrust levers, so that the fuel cut-off could not be moved unless the relevant thrust lever was at idle. That way, PM would not be physically able to move the switches because PF would have their hands on the thrust levers at that point and therefore able to resist - or at least be warned of what PM might be attempting.
But airliners have flown millions of hours and take-offs without this problem ever arising, so I would question the need for any change, (while re-stating my personal call to make pilot rosters more reasonable).
But, 'we' need to introduce some sort of reporting system that pilots could use for personal stress issues, without fear of reprisals. E.g. the fatigue reporting system could be expanded to include stress. Pilot licence or earnings replacement insurance should not be allowed to be refused for mental issues in the event of a pilot losing their medical.
Such measures might help pilots under (any form of) stress to get help and be excused line duties if necessary, until they had satisfactorily sorted their problems out.