F S … early on in the piece I pondered that possibility also!
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… it may well be relevant if the Embraer pilots turned the TXPDR off due fault (perceived or real)?!
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.. either way, if it was U/S/OFF (for whatever reason), the poor sods at the sharp end of the B738 (and ATC) would have been blissfully unaware of the impending disaster!
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… It is probably safe to assume (tech logs will verify in any case) that with 200 hours on the B738, any ‘infant’ issues with avionics including TCAS would have been found and rectified (including checks prior to delivery to GOL)!
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.. I would assume similar for the Embraer (how many hours do they do before delivery??)
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.. a side question if I may to Boeing brains:- .. the new ‘short field performance’ mods to the B738
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.… do they have any performance variance (compared to a standard B738) when the wing is in clean config i.e. stall margins in the higher flight levels??