I'm starting to mumble to myself we haven't a clue where either of the two co-pilots was sitting.
JD-EE
Yeah, no kidding. That BEA Update is too ambiguous for anybody to come to a conclusion. The one thing we do know is that the PF on takeoff from Rio was one of the FO's. I don't see any problem with the junior FO doing the TO with the captain in the LHS.
Wiggy writes
The captain woke the other (or second) co-pilot by some means and then commented to the junior pilot in the RHS that:"he's going to take my place". i.e. the senior P2 simply replaced the captain in the Left hand seat
but that's all speculation. Who was the "other (or second) co-pilot"? We don't know whom the captain was addressing or who he meant by "he's going to take my place".
No doubt all (or most of it) will be revealed in due course. Still, it's strange - well, maybe not so strange - that the print media all proclaimed the "baby pilot" to have been PF.