Glueball
Very difficult to know if the PF could have been able to exert enough force to disengage the autopilot and then quickly reduce the applied force to make an acceptable rotation in the time/runway space available.
The expat P2 captain maintains that the takeoff would not have been possible without autopilot disconnection. He was very badly shocked by the event.
From the Wall Street Journal 17 March 2010:
By ANDY PASZTOR
Air-safety regulators are ordering U.S. airlines to install new software on Boeing 777s to keep the jetliners from possibly running off the end of runways, a mandate that could ultimately affect more than 800 planes world-wide.
In a safety directive released Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the fix to prevent problems when the autopilot system is inadvertently on while a Boeing 777 aircraft is rolling down the runway just before takeoff.
When pilots try to climb under such circumstances without realizing the autopilot is engaged, they encounter greater than usual resistance in raising the aircraft's nose. As a result, the FAA said, the pilots decide to halt the takeoff at a dangerously high speed.
The order comes in the wake of two Boeing 777 incidents in January in which pilots inadvertently engaged the autopilot before starting to take off. When the crews felt unusually strong resistance from their flight controls as they were trying to overcome the autopilot, they opted to stop at a speed that was too high for such a maneuver. Both planes remained on their runways, Boeing Co. said.
Since 1995, the FAA and Boeing have identified a total of nine similar incidents.
U.S. airlines operate nearly 150 Boeing 777s. Boeing and the FAA said that if, as expected, the agency's order is accepted by foreign regulators, it would affect more than 800 planes.
A Boeing spokeswoman said that since 1995, when the Boeing twin-engine 777 was introduced, the planes have made a total of 4.8 million flights without any injuries or accidents attributed to such autopilot issues.
The FAA's airworthiness directive also calls for other software changes to ensure that Boeing 777s can climb steeply enough to avoid obstacles if one engine fails on takeoff. The FAA said Boeing found during simulator testing that after some 777 takeoffs with only one engine operating, the plane could fail to climb steeply enough on autopilot during the initial phase of flight.
The FAA said that if the autopilots aren't modified, more takeoffs could be halted by pilots just as the front wheels of a Boeing 777 lift off the runway. It is particularly hard for pilots to slow down at that point.
The results include "possible overrun of the runway," the agency said.
Around the time of the January incidents, Boeing issued a service bulletin alerting airlines to install new autopilot software making it impossible for pilots to engage autopilots before takeoffs. Compliance with such bulletins is voluntary. Boeing called for the software changes to be completed within a year.
The FAA decided the matter was more urgent, and that it would require airlines to comply with its order within 90 days after it becomes final.
Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article inaccurately described a potential problem that could result if a Boeing 777's autopilot is inadvertently engaged during takeoff.