I've just seen a program on TV about this with the normal media 'hero worship'.
Journo's love a good story, facts are sometimes inconveniences that have to be ignored. Heroes sell papers etc
You WANT heroes - then look to Sioux City, those guys were heroic.
Hero is a most over-used term these days.
Fact: the crew were dealt a really nasty incident.
Conjecture: You could argue that this fell outside the checklist.
BUT am I wrong in thinking that blind, slavish acceptance of checklist is WRONG?
If it isn't then you've made the case for the trained monkey instead of individuals who do LOFTs, CRM, Tech Refreshers, Line Checks etc etc.
It became obvious early doors that the drill wasn't making the situation better. Surely any thinking person can differentiate between a fuel imbalance and a leak. Fuel imbalance IMPROVES when you take action, Fuel LEAK doesn't.
My old time military checklists used to add a phrase along the lines of:
This checklist constitutes the best advice currently available but may have to be modified and is no substitute for sound judgement and good airmanship (can't remember the exact phrase).
When do you STOP feeding a fuel leak?
It's NOT brain surgery. You're in the middle of the pond and your crossfeed is open and downstream fuel is disappearing too damn quick.
So, lets just keep going until it's empty?
Sound judgement and good airmanship? I don't think so.
Given they were IN the position, they did well to get to land.
Wouldn't any of you made the same decision given the lack of noise?
This to me, smacks of slavish following of checklist without any thought of 'what are the implications of what I'm doing?'. Poor CRM and poor judgement. Smacks of some more heroes - Kegworth.
Personally, my view is that had the questions been asked, and the gauges been viewed and interpreted, they could have landed at Santa Maria with an engine running.
OK, I'm now ducking to avoid incoming.
It's incidents like this of 'heroes' that remind me of the Viscount that ran out of noise just short of Bournemouth a few years back.
Due to fuel gauge problems and a failure to reconcile fuel uplift, this crew ran out of fuel short of their DESTINATION let alone their ALTERNATE. They flopped into a field and everybody got out.
The passengers clapped as the pilots came out of the cabin, the press hailed them as 'HEROES'.
I rest my case.
The Edit: Marks have been deducted for spelling and grammar- apologies for the stuff I've missed.
Last edited by Dengue_Dude; 28th Oct 2004 at 11:12.