vovachan
What seemed immediately incongruous to me about ACARS was that a/p tripped out (as it is programmed to do), because of exceeded limits reached by the a/c in auto flight. Nothing particularly dramatic about that, but even in turbulence, the a/p has generous +/- parameters, and it seems odd the pilot(s) would let the a/c get that rambunctious so as to require auto disconnect rather than manual disconnect sometime prior.
The a/c appears to have transited the wx when ACARS transmits a/p disc, A/THR drop, again why wait, if it appears inevitable hand flying will be necessary, being in turbulence, why hesitate?? One risks the instability of turbulence of course, but adjusting to minor out of trim state could be done earlier with a manual disconnect. Another question might be, is their record of aircrew briefings on the pitot unreliable a/s, and how often is it briefed especially prior to an ETOPS over water, night, wx impacted flight?
Last edited by Will Fraser; 5th Jul 2009 at 02:14.