HotDog
Not trying to blow my own trumpet as a flight engineer but had there been a flight engineer present, neither AF or Air China would have finished up in the drink. SOP on the classic 747s was for the flight engineer to hold the engineer's spur thrust levers against the stops after selection of reverse thrust which prevented any forward movement of the thrust levers.
Maybe, but one cannot generalise as in the Camair incident -a 742 -, the flight engineer participated in the confusion in the cockpit, with the consequences that we now know :
...the reason for the thrust increase of #1 engine remains difficult to explain...
That the F/E, by leaning over the pedestal in order to reach the speedbrake handle might have inadvertently displaced #1 throttle towards full forward thrust cannot be discarded...
A lack of coordination between the captain and the F/E, as well as an absence of cross monitoring with the F/O might have contributed in the irreversibility of the situation...
(
my translation)
In this instance, we see the often observed synchronised drops in performance of all the members of a crew in heavy stress situations.