Back to leading edge flaps ........
I don't think adding one more thing to the takeoff checklist is good. It happened once so just be aware of it.
akcherly .......... more than once.
Lufthansa 747, Flight 540, 20th Nov. 1974, Nairobi .......
from the accident report Quote .......
............ the lack of adequate warning systems which could have alerted the crew to the problem. Two previous occurrences of this error had been reported.
I freely admit that I have no experience of EICAS messaging, but the BA report suggests that an 'amber' i.e. low level, warning, appeared on the EICAS screen about the L.E. flaps, and 'may not ' have been noticed - can't comment, but the Classic 747 had a bright green / amber light above the flap angle indicators, and had that light extinguished, and turned amber as the flaps started to retract, I might suggest that it would have been more noticeable than a 'tap on the shoulder' from a computer ?
That doesn't mean that it was more likely that the crew might have abandoned take-off anymore than they did on this occasion, rightly or wrongly, but it would appear that they didn't notice the EICAS message - if I've interpreted the report correctly (?)
There has been a recent PPRuNe thread asking if we rely too much on computers - QED (?) Bells and whistles and flashing lights do tend to concentrate the mind, but maybe a definitive essay in plain language of precisely what is the problem is really the way to go ?
Perhaps a 747 -400 driver might comment ?