Octopus was the Take-off Performance Data programme supplied by Airbus. It was up to the individual airline Ops Depts. to specify the parameters to be used. In our case the company switched from normal mid range V speeds to minimum ones and this was what made the V1 cuts so much more critical. Less than 11PA no unstick - more than 13PA and speed would trend below V2 whilst the gear was travelling! Because of this more guys would tend to go for TOGA very early on and we saw quite a few very unstable rotations and near pod/wingtip strikes. Don`t misunderstand me. I am not saying don`t use TOGA just that not all situations require it.
As an aside, I believe the chap had visited my company to give us the benefit of his own CRM skills not long before the incident. Lets call it an incident - would not want to call it an accident!
I`m off now for a `tinny` or two!