Pinnacle Airlines aircraft incident

[AirRabbit]

Howdy Westhawk –

I read your comments on the function of the autopilot’s tendency to “pitch hunt;” and I certainly agree that this is a most disconcerting and uncomfortable action that most pilots, including me, would want to avoid. That may well be the reason these guys chose the mode of operation they chose – but, as you pointed out, it’s “more work to closely monitor the speed.” The part that I think these guys missed is the “…occasionally adjust the desired vertical rate to stay on speed schedule” and, I believe that is because of the attitude they adopted that “the rules are relaxed when we don’t have passengers aboard.”

However, having said all that – I completely agree with you that it is important to know what happened after the aircraft was allowed to get into the sick shaker / stick pusher realm of operation. The material that is available on the FDR, as informative as it is, could be a lot more informative if the questions I’ve suggested were asked and answered. I fear that the reason these or similar questions were not asked and answered, is that someone (perhaps several someones) with some degree of authority (and in my book, that is what is important), concluded that the FDR and CVR data was singularly sufficient to reach the necessary conclusion(s).

I reiterate, without the additional information that could have been supplied by answering those questions (or similar ones), the conclusions reached, at the very least, have an opportunity to be less than fully developed. IF that is an accurate position (and obviously I believe it is) then the conclusions reached – any and all conclusion regarding this portion of the accident profile – is going to be, at best, incomplete – and, I believe, very likely to be misleading to a very deserving and perhaps due to this, still vulnerable, aviation industry. I don’t understand an attitude that would allow this to occur. And this potential is the basis that formed my earlier admonitions to be sure that ALL of the facts were considered before reaching conclusions.

The point is that the crew may very well have done exactly what the synopsis of the investigators indicates; and there may be no additional areas of “fault” that came into play. However, unless some additional information is gathered and considered as to whether or not the airplane itself played a more substantial role in this tragedy, we may be wrongly blaming only the crew (certainly their family, friends, and co-workers have enough to occupy their minds without having to endure additional accusations, particularly if incorrect) and ignorantly allowing a potential problem with a machine continue to lurk in the darkness of that ignorance, awaiting an opportunity to spring to light, this time with a full load of passengers!

I guess we’ll all have to wait, see, and pray.
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AirRabbit