Originally posted by bsieker
You were asked to show the error in the argument that the Baskirian crew's actions were rational, and how you arrived at your conclusion that it was not rational.
Aside from the fact that they are all dead? Well, if you are flying in the mountains and ATC says descend immediately for traffic and moments later your GPWS goes off, which takes priority? If you are climbing slowly because you are heavy and ATC direct an immediate increase in climb due to conflicting traffic and moments later the stick shaker sounds, which takes priority? If you are in the situation over Germany that night and you have the conflicting messages that this crew had, which takes priority? There is only one rational answer to each, and in my opinion and none of them involve ATC taking priority.
But.....a previous post said that my action is biased by western training and that in Russia....
"For national flights the controller has the authority to command the crew to take a certain action." It is a regulation to follow ATC instructions where I fly as well. Does that mean I am going to fly into the ground or stall the aircraft to follow an ATC instuction for immediate traffic separation? Do the Russian crews need to be told to ignore their stall warning or continue descending into the mountain peaks against their TAWS warning because of an ATC instruction?
P.S. I forgot to mention to the ATC poster that it is common to turn our transponder(TCAS) to TA only after an engine failure due to performance limitations. Also on parallel approaches to runways with less than 2500 foot spacing.