Having read the report, one of the first things that stood out was the fact the captain had the first officer programming the flight management computer to draw lines and position fixes on the moving map display to a three mile final - and before that more heads down programming was taking place despite the aircraft being high and fast and the runway in sight.
What mind-set is taught to airline pilots that so many rely heavily on heads down flying on flight directors and hanging on to autothrottles regardless if appropriate or not (amazing things though they may be),that they have apparently lost the basic flying skills needed to judge a visual approach path without having stick shakers going off.
The time is well overdue that ATSB make serious research on previous incidents of this nature (unstable approaches below 1000 ft for example, perhaps stick shaker incidents, and high and fast approaches), to see if quite unnecessary heads down programming of flight management systems at low altitudes has, in fact, led to greater workload than desirable with the inevitable result the crew are well behind the aircraft.
One is reminded of a true story in which a Boeing instructor pilot in a US simulator remarked to a pilot undergoing a 737 endorsement: "Barry - one thing is for sure and that is you will never be killed flying a 737 - and do you know why? Well, I'll tell you why. That mother-fu***r will be so far ahead of you when it crashes you'll never catch up"
Time and again, there has been evidence that loss of control crashes overseas have been caused by too much concentration on autopilot programming to the detriment of basic handling skills.
Last edited by A37575; 11th Mar 2011 at 12:13.