Whenever there is an accident, pilots congregate in bars around the world to discuss it and speculate about the cause. Throughout my time in aviation I have never heard a pilot say " Let's not talk about this until the report is published". Many lessons can be learned even from incorrect speculation and many accidents have been prevented by information gleaned during these discussions.
I have no idea whether it was the cause of this accident but there have been many cases of crews using the performance data for the wrong runway or airfield. I have done it myself but fortunately in my case it was picked up by the other pilot.
If you use performance charts then there are a couple of things that we can do to help prevent this;
1. Having completed the T/O card, do not leave it in the page that you have used. If you place it in a random page, the checking crewmember will have to locate the correct page rather than just use the one that you have used.
2. Ensure that the airfield locator is clearly shown on the card. I can (but won't) name several airlines that do not have a space for this information on their T/O card.
We can either act now to prevent incorrect data being used in the future or we can wait until the report is published.
Airclues