PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Air France rejected T/O in Lagos
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Old 2nd Feb 2010, 07:42
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jeff64
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: FRANCE
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Till two years ago, Southwest Airlines didn't have AT installed on those 737 (200 - 300 - 500 - 700)
And I am not sure there was more accident related to thrust at southwest (at least at southwest, an accident like Turkish at schiphol wouldn't have occurred) than any other airline.
And still today, they are not allowed by SOP's to use AutoThrust on takeoff and on descent.

I was reading (again) the report on the Air France 744 swim training on Tahiti (1996 I guess).
744 landing by night from LAX. VOR DME approach. Manual flying but AT ON, approach in LNAV VNAV.
Approaching MDA, AT set go around thrust. The PNF announced "THR REF" but none of the crew analyzed the situation and the announcement.
The PF felt the force of the thrust levers wanting to move forward, but he restrained them. The speed increased to VREF + 35 and they noticed it, but didn't do any action and continued the landing.
5 seconds before Touchdown, the PF raised his hand to take the reverses, but number one engine spooled up to GA thrust (and again, they didn't noticed it).
The PNF announced "four reverses" (but that was not true) and some seconds later announced "errr, number one is not in reverse".
At this moment (about 10sec after TD), they noticed the number one was in full forward thrust, the ground spoilers were still down, and the autobrake was deactivated. Too late. 90 degrees right, right into the lagoon.

And I'm sure we can find a more more more cases of unreading or misreading of FMA. (how many cases of AP disconnect unnoticed by the crew ? Only in France, I have read two or three reports, and none of them was air france. By memory, an 310, an Bae146, and an 330.)
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