I agree with BOAC, less heat on Boeing. Human factors most probable from what has been posted so far(not just on here).
The Captain's Radio altimeter was known to be faulty?
On LOC/GS autopilot disengages 2 sec after capture. This scenario started at about at 2000'agl?Isn't that the platform altitude for the ILS's into AMS?Company culture, national culture, a ''man and boy'' operation, afraid to speak up, 2 FO's on the flight deck one being a safety FO?These are the questions that have to be asked as well putting sensitivities to culture/tradition aside.
Regardless of company SOP or not guarding the controls is airmanship. I have found the best way to be in tune with the machine. On how many occasions when on the jumpseat I found crews engaging in non operational chatter which detracts one's attention. This used to occur regularly with one guy who was hell bent on anti CRM policies of the said operator and treated FO's with contempt.
Now we have to brief on the cabin/configuration warning and subsequent actions should it activate inflight. Wasn't that already a recall action ever since the aeroplane was first certified? Why didn't a certain crew do just that in the first place?There are numerous ''swiss holes'' during each flight and before we know it maybe the QRH will become a recall item which in turn would overload and make crew's to overlook/forget and thus rendering the system useless. Our manuals are already trimmed down to nothing because of this ''liability factor'' and are instead written by Lawyers that do noting to help a crew's collective knowledge. How many on here were quick to pint to Boeing about not writing anything about this?How many times have we been shown something in the simulator that is not written anywhere? And the very use of this ''where is it written'' material is not acceptable to operators due to the potential for liability and crew's are discouraged from using unofficial information.The only way to guard against this is to understand our job and follow procedures. And that can only be achieved with information.
How many deaths happen in the medical profession each year?And on the flip side more information is added each day to educate/train the medical profession. In our profession the opposite is true due to the Layer factor and management's pursuit for profits. Hopefully we can all learn something from this tragic event and especially sausage factories for pilots that try and create the Macdonalds for Airline pilots of tomorrow. That is a clear demonstration of a latent failure in/by the present system, as recently warned by the Hudson Hero. Did anyone listen?