Ironbutt 57
It is as cut and dried as that. It is that simple.
What part of the issue of a JOINT 'Upset and Recovery Training Aid' issued JOINTLY by Airbus AND Boeing in 1998 PLUS a signed letter from AA's MD-Flight Ops- Technical to Airbus expressing grave concerns over AA's 'In-House' Upset Recovery training can't you grasp?
Kicking the rudder around at speeds greater than Va, Vref80, Green Dot or whatever is a big No-No! First Officer Mollins wasn't taught that. Ignorance of the system is scant defence. If he was taught an incorrect technique then the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the training department.
You can't hold the spotlight on Toulouse for this. Other operators of the A300-600/A310-300 DID NOT have as many rudder concerns or problems as what AA had. This was a 'Home Grown' problem whatever way you look at it and AA training has to take a long hard look at itself. The bottom line is AA WERE informed otherwise we'd have heard from all the other A300-600/A310-300 operators screaming that they hadn't got the bulletin but they are silent meaning they probably had notification of the OEB's and other Advisories. If it 'got lost in the post' then that's unfortunate. If, however, it was sent but not acted upon then that is nothing short of Gross Negligence.
I implore anyone to watch the BBC documentary before apportioning blame.
Flight Safety
Please watch this documentary and judge for yourself the AA training procedures demonstrated in the sim' by their own guys. It was quite scary to watch and the techniques demonstrated easily induced a PIO at speeds greater than Va with HUGE rudder inputs. Please judge for yourself.
What this Co-pilot intended to do cannot be assertained. What he was trained to do can.
Last edited by Pontious; 27th Oct 2004 at 13:06.