I'm with you on most of what you say.
But I think perhaps it's more practical to train pilots to retard their own throttles at 27' than it is to run the risk of having what is essentially a convenience item completely ruin your day and that of everyone riding with you. Having Bitchin Betty announce "retard" like on the bus would seem to about cover it and at significantly less risk, given the proven ability of pilots to ignore nuisance warnings should the system malfunction.
Whatever the culpability of the Turkish crew and the level of negligence and incompetence they displayed in allowing the aircraft to stall on approach. I keep coming back to the fact that it's likely the aircraft would have been recoverable and would not have crashed and those who perished would have survived the encounter, if the PL's had not retarded a second time after the crew had moved them forward as part of the recovery procedure they initiated.
Last edited by MU3001A; 21st September 2009 at 04:34.