Originally Posted by foresight
One shortly after take off, one on the localiser (in the sim)
Does no-one keep their hand on the PLs at such times, anymore?
I do, now more than ever. The captain (pilot flying), on our MD-11 flight did not, as he was dialing-in a new heading on the MCP just as the thrust reduction occurred. The guy had so many hours experience on the F27, DC8, and DC10 that I have no doubts about his basic flying skills and airmanship, but that doesn't alter the simple fact of having just two arms.
It takes only seconds for such a split-throttle situation to develop, and there
is an element of chance involved in such things as the timing of heading instructions by ATC. Perhaps I should rephrase my sentence about "being lucky", as it was mainly good monitoring by the whole crew and not mere luck that made us aware of the problem almost the instant it occurred. But the speed at which this situation could develop was a real eye-opener for both of us. As it was, undoubtedly, for the crew that crashed the simulator...
Whether any of this applies to the Turkish flight remains to be seen. I can only hope that the investigation report will be able to shed some light on the human factors that caused this crew to be unaware of their impending stall. But I think I have
some idea about what happened once they discovered their error. I recently got an hands-on demonstration in a B737 simulator to experience the pitch-up effect that occurs when initiating a go-around from a deliberately induced extremely low-energy state. The scenario was set up like this: autopilot-coupled ILS approach, autothrottle off, thrustlevers idle, airspeed reducing until stick-shaker onset, disengaging the autopilot and setting go-around thrust a full 5 seconds later. Well - it can be done. Barely. And it requires both hands on the control column to arrest the pitch-up.
So here's a dilemma: had the captain of the accident flight had his right hand on the throttle after initiating the go-around, he would have noticed the subsequent inadvertent thrust reduction by the autothrottle. But, using just one arm for pitch control, he then wouldn't have been able to apply enough force to the control column to prevent the excessive pitch-up (*). He too had only two arms.
BTW: here's a report about a similar, almost fatal, incident:
Air Accidents Investigation: 3/2009 G-THOF.
(*) Perhaps he might have, with a lot of left-hand arm-wrestling practice?