Originally Posted by Me Myself
The only undisputable facts are :
- Both engines retarded to flight idle ( didn't stop !! )
- Crew saved the day.
1. Both engines retarded somewhat
above flight idlle. Too bad the AAIB does not state exactly how much ...
2. The crew saved the day? Can you bring some insight? Because, according to the AAIB :
- the "flying" (co-)pilot forgot to fly the aircraft - just doing nothing, letting the autopilot fly the standard glide slope, bleeding airspeed down to the stall.
- the captain failed to monitor copilot lack of responsiveness while the speed was decaying down to stall speed at 170 ft agl. Stalling the aircraft from 170 feet led to a very hard crash landing. Other options were clearly available.
- neither the captain nor the copilot managed to restore engine thrust.
Actually we don't now exactly what were the crew actions if any. The release of the VCR will bring some insight ...
You shoud know perhaps the basic principle of crew coordination : The Flyin Pilot FLIES the aircraft, The non flying pilot "manage" the flight. Both crosscheck each other. It works pretyy nice in normal operation.
In hard emergency ... no room is left for crosschecking. That is the "two" pilots crew shortcoming.
So, perhaps the two pilots were just "frozen" ... Nobody would blame them due to the exceptionnal nature of this incident, the lack of information available to them, the lack of briefing discussion and the lack of minimum training.
However, writing that they "saved the day" is a little far fetched ...