Blah blah blah blah blah
lateral thinking when you have just seconds or fractions of a second to react ?
Two lots in under a year, in similar circumstances, in the same marque of aeroplane. In that situation, IMO, you have ALSO to consider the possibility that the 'book' may be wrong to start with.
When it happens, the book is modified (See Bernd's link, for instance).
Otherwise, just consider that had these aircrews applied what was written in the books, those accidents would have been avoided.
As, according to your well-known agenda, you are just putting the blame on one
marque only, see the link of the EASA that Bernd provided and you'll find out that under :
SIN 2007-04 09/03/2007 Boeing 737-800 Spoiler Retraction Failure.
Withdrawn as a consequence of the issuance of FAA Emergency AD 2007-06-51
nobody is immune to spoiler -among other systems - problems.
I also wonder what would have happened to one of these 737NGs, had they decided on an aborted landing.( The default hasn't been fixed, yet )
Lateral thinking, you said ?
The problem for you is two-fold :
1/- Your grasp of aero-technology is very limited, your understanding of airplane operations is blinded by prejudice and old memories of some local flying.
2/- You presume, like all of us in the comfort of your favourite arm-chair, to criticize actions about which you have no idea, especially about procedural discipline. Just look up on youtube this video, one of 32 about training and use a bit of imagination to visualize that every day, thousands of aircrew operate through the same vocabulary, the same operating procedures...standardisation is
one of the main factors for aircraft safety and having for more years than I could count on insisted on standard ops and phraseology, I certainly can vouch that we have achieved, and still implement that kind of discipline. There is no "Oh ! See ! There is an amber light over there"..., John Wayne style, but this kind of dialogue and co-operation and co-ordination :
YouTube - Airbus A320 Video Training 27 of 32
Most of my professional life was spent getting paid for 'lateral thinking.'
You are no pilot and you can afford that luxury. I don't in an emergency.
You seem to take the view that, A. the 'book' is always right, and - therefore - that, B. anyone who gets into trouble just got what they deserved because they didn't follow the 'book.'
Yes, you summed it up... I would only qualify your second sentence :"
Perform any action not approved by the Book at your own peril - and your passengers'". You have to be damned sure of what you're doing and unfortunately, the more time goes by, the less knowledge we have of what is involved behind a switch.Flow diagrams are good for understanding the basics of a system. They have no pretention for accuracy.
And I, very arrogantly, I confess, have no sympathy for what I've called a "very flippant operation", whether at Cardiff or at Habsheim. For the crews at Congonhas and Tai-Pei, on the other hand, I can understand a lapse of concentration, which can happen to anyone of us.