747FOCAL,
I wasn't questioning your account of the crew's actions in setting the EPR before and during TO, only your interpretation of the underlying rationale for their actions. You think that the crew member who advanced the throttles at around V1 would have firewalled the throttles only if he didn't know what the proper EPR setting was. Further, you imply that he believed the correct EPR setting for TO was 1.6 , so that when he noticed at around V1 that the EPR was at 1.3, he raised the setting to 1.6. That's a 23% increase - pretty hefty IMHO.
Is it normal practice for a crew to adjust the PWR setting by such a large amount at such an advanced stage of the TO roll?
I can only conclude that the crew must have grossly underestimated the TOW.
Rockhound