BEagle,
Wilco!
All,
I don't want to get into criticising Captain Marty for his handling of the emergency after crossing the main road (I had earlier (on another strand) questioned whether others felt that they'd have turned for Le Bourget earlier, and perhaps traded a small but steady rate of climb for more airspeed, and even whether the final turn was too slow and too tight) - especially after John Farley and Covenant have expressed their belief that he was doing an excellent job in handling the aeroplane. Who am I, a humble (?) PPL, to question....
But even if we don't question the Captain's handling or judgement in that final phase of the flight, that doesn't mean we should either blame or absolve the crew of blame entirely - and I think we should continue to ask questions about the human and CRM factors involved.
Shortfinals:
You say that "Crucifying the French crew is no way to go, and almost certainly unjustifiable. Put yourself in the seat and imagine what it would have been like."
I would hope that any professional pilot putting himself in Captain Marty's seat wouldn't have deliberately and knowingly taxied out and taken off overweight, and would have acted differently on learning of the change in wind direction, since that increased the discrepancy between ATOW and RTOW to an unacceptable extent.
I would hope that any flight engineer putting himself in the French FE's seat would similarly have not shut down the No.2 engine at that stage of the flight.
I would hope that no FE would shut down an engine without a direct command to do so from the Captain or handling pilot.
I would hope (though with less vigour and much less confidence!) that any Captain would have made some reassuring or explanatory remark in response to his FO's repeated shouts of 'airspeed!'.
"none of the scenarios that I can see as possible would make me criticise Marty and his crew."
What would you have done when you realised that ATOW was above MTOW, even before you taxied, and perhaps even above max structural for taxying, then?
What would you have done when you realised that ATOW was way above RTOW when you reached the threshold then?
If you'd have done the same as they did, then there's no reason for criticism, but if (as I suspect) you'd have done your job according to the rules and regs, then there are grounds for asking questions at least, even if they imply a degree of possible or potential criticism.
Personally, I'd question the risk perception of a pilot who attempted to surf-board across the Atlantic. I can't see that as indicating anything other than enormous self confidence, courage and probably skill, strength and intellectual toughness too - but (on the flip side) might also suggest a fairly cavalier attitude to conventional perceptions of risk and procedure. That said, of course, there are individuals who can exhibit entirely different characteristics in different areas of their lives, and a careful, methodical plodder on the flight deck may be a devil-may-care exhibitionist and dare-devil on the water, in bed, or on the racetrack, or whatever, but may never let one set of characteristics intrude into another area of his life. Captain Marty may well have been such a man.