Readers Digest Condensed Version - Rush to Pilot Error
The post volume is definitely up since Friday's release, but I don't know that we can say the same for the post quality. We were all hoping for "the answer" to be released on Friday, and I think a lot of people, especially some of the general media seem to feel it was, and that the answer was pilot error.
What we got from the BEA was basically a condensed version of what happened, and it leaves with a pilot taking what appears to be an unexplained action, 30s of pitch up.
Coming from a technical and software background (machinbird and others can probably tell from where) one might think I would be quick to jump on the pilot error bandwagon, but I am not.
If we look at this from the standpoint of Input --> Decision --> Output we have, I feel, only partial insight to what the inputs to the pilots were, we don't know, from what was given so far, what the decision making process was, and we have at least some of the outputs, the pitch, roll, throttle commands but not a real understanding as to why those choices were made when they were made.
Hopefully when a more complete release of the CVR and DFDR information is made we will gain greater insight as to the decision making process and "why" of the pilot actions. I find it hard to believe that if they appear counter intuitive that we are not missing parts of the picture either from the brief release, or limitations to what data is collected in the complete record.
These pilots had a very vested interest in solving the problem they were presented, I strongly suspect there was a lot more discussion and information than we are currently being given. Though the BEA may have been wanting to help stem the amount of leaked information, they may have added to the amount of misinterpretation, or rushed judgement.
I also hope the moderators will ensure that several of our new posters who share a common viewpoint do not originate from a single IP address.