Originally Posted by
Tee Emm
With some ethnic cultures it is a fact of life and at the very minimum a reasonable bet, that a jet upset due severe turbulence IMC at high altitude would result in loss of control if only because realistic unusual attitude recovery training from extreme attitudes is not covered in their simulator training.
Throw in possible dual flame-outs - and subsequent intricate QRH procedures required - as has happened in the past in the CFM 56 engines (some may remember the other Indonesian 737 that had a double engine failure in heavy weather and was fortunate enough to dead stick into a river bed with minimum casualties) - and unless the crew were coldly professional, calm and collected (not a normal characteristic of some cultures) then the sad ending was inevitable.
Instead of making ill-formulated speculation that the cause of this accident was caused by the ethnicity of the pilots, passengers, country in which the accident took place,etc,etc, you might spend your time better by watching "big brother" and the behaviour of some of your equally racist compatriots at the moment.
If I'd ever been stuck as a passenger in the same situation as those in Garuda flight 421 - I'd be more than happy to have had INDONESIAN pilots in control: Loss of both engines, failure at restart attempts, TS with heavy rain and IMC down to 8000 ft, SUCCESFUL ditching with NO OTHER option available in that area - only 1 (INDIRECT) fatality. I call that admirable at the least - some might even say possibly a "characteristic of 'their' culture"!
As for the pilots who face future proceedings in Indonesia (for doing the right thing)- I genuinely wish you the the best of luck dan saya harap pengadilan mampu bersikap adil dalam mengambil keputusan - bebas dari tekanan politik yang mungkin menyertai. I hope the relatives of ft574 find peace soon and have their questions answered ultimately. We can only hope that this will be the final accident to make the regulatory authorities (and moreso government/certain politicians) wake up!