The incident should never have happened if the flight crew sticks to time honoured practice.........if the authrottle did not engage, set the thrust ( EPR/N1 ) manually by 60 kts. No messing around with the MCP. One wonders how the flight crews of 1st world airlines can make such deliberate violation of SOP! No, not schadenfrude but just wondering...........
"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes; chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire"
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Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)
As AD 2010-06-09 refers, there have been 9 cases
reported since 1995 of this event occurring with similar responses from the crew.
On this occasion, there probably was at least 3 properly qualified and competent flight crew on the flight deck. Yet in spite of the training, SOP's and procedures, this event type has occurred at least 9 times with the same result, sufficient to get the FAA and Boeing's attention. What is not reported is the extent that such actions by crew do not result in a problem, yet would be an indication of spontaneous crew actions. The comment on failure to follow SOP's is as correct as it fundamentally disregards the human element. The reason the industry has accepted Human Factors training as a basic component of qualification. That the crew(s) have not followed the procedures and as are promulgated is self evident, as is the failure of monitoring of the pilot monitoring.
That's what human do.
Even well trained ones.
While most, if not all programs strive to maintain SOP's at all times, none achieve 100% compliance, nor does any one individual if they are honest about their own performance.
Hence the training.
The training doesn't ensure complete protection, but it does give some insight into the inherent problems, and occasionally modifies behavior patterns.
100% compliance with Policy, Practices & Procedures is a desirable goal but has not been achieved in any industry at any time in human history. (Non compliance probably started with Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden.... hasn't improved since. Human error?, consider Bhophal, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, "Weapons of Mass Destruction", The Maginot Line, "Peace in Our Time", "Titanic", The Somme (I & II), "Waterworld", Emperor Constantine XI's armament procurement program, the Inqusition, Enron, The Edsel, Lincoln's choice of theaters, Romeo's decision making, Napoleon's Eastern European Tour 1812, Paris' choice of girlfriend, Wallstreet 1987, 2008, 20??, IMF 1997 etc... let alone the aviation industry; AA191, JAL103, AA1420, TE901, IA605, AF296Q, GF072, TAM3054, D-AXLA, F-WWCJ, THY981, AC621, UAL173...Challenger, Columbia.... [direct and indirect causations]).
On a day to day basis, if you (metaphorically, not personally...) get to completing the Before Start Checklist without a non compliance, non adherence of standard crew actions or callouts, I would be happy. If you get to engine shutdown without a momentary lapse of same, I would be rather impressed. If a pilot believes they achieve full compliance on a daily basis, it may be that a more critical analysis of their performance is in order, rather than they are inhuman in their performance.
The vast majority of flight crews are professional and do an impressive job day in and day out. They remain human, and that is their strength and their weakness as well. Flight crew make mistakes, and the system copes generally well with these. Occasionally it doesn't. Being surprised the crew failed to follow SOP's appears to forget the human factor in the operation utterly.
"have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it"
Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989)
Cheers,
Fly Safe,
FDR