Advancing power levers on a 757 on the ground will retract the speed brakes automatically. It was to assist in a go around after touchdown. Boeing didn't deem it necessary in flight. Procedures were changed after that incident to verify speed brake retracted on all GPWS alerts. It might have let them clear the ridge but it would have been so close.
I flew that night in the same area and with no moon coming over the hills you could not see anything with unlimited visibility. A month later Cali offered us the same straight in approach down the Valley they were offered and I declined it to overfly and do the ILS. If it wasn't for their crash I would have taken it but it was an easy non precision approach and shouldn't have ended up like it did.
Last edited by p51guy; 9th Jul 2010 at 22:48.