Originally Posted by vanHork
CAP: "Là je sais pas là ça descend"
in no way is this one single sentence. I was raised partly in French, the second "là" is out of place within one sentence. It suggests a second sentence, therefore:
Là je sais pas. Là ça descend
or to put it differently:
Là je sais pas .............. Là ça descend
Whatever the conclusion is, this sentence is crucial alongside the decisions or not of the PNF or the CDB (not) to take control
Tanscript without ponctuation and timming (silences) is difficult to read and interpret.
What makes the link is that it seems obvious that the captain is answering the PNF previous questions:
2 h 12 min 13
PNF: - Qu’est-ce que tu en penses... qu’est-ce que tu en penses, qu’est-ce qu’il faut faire ?
2 h 12 min 15 -> 2 h 12 min 19
CAP: - Là... je sais pas là... ça descend...
2 h 12 min 13
PNF: - What do you think... what do you think, what should we do?
2 h 12 min 15 -> 2 h 12 min 19
CAP: - Hmm... no idea up to this point... aircraft is going down... [free interpretation of the meaning]
And the reason why the captain seems so puzzled is to be find on what the aircraft was doing after his arrival in the cockpit (0211:43 - 0212:15) added to the lack of informations reported to him by near panicked F/Os.
He did not find a stable situation at all: pitch, roll, alarms, thrust... everything could look incoherent to him during this time window.