Xcitation
Yes and no.
Not easy, not by any means, but troubling that they did not appear to diagnose the stall to the very end (unless you interpret the CDB's "impossible" remark). There were plenty of hurdles, e.g. the 60kt alarm "cut off" and no AoA indication (and the PF and PNF were probably receiving very different information at times), but also plenty of clues - pitch/attitude, trim (THS position), buffet and the VSI plummeting downwards. And the audible stall alarm, intermittently.
What worries me more is whether, unless the stall had been prevented in the period after A/P disconnect and reversion to ALT law, this crew were trained to recover from such a stall by hand flying and even with FLT380 to play with? As I have said previously, I believe PNF was close to diagnosis. From what has so far been disclosed, I still wouldn't bet my mortgage (if I still had one) on their recovering and that poses a lot of questions for the industry.....
Re: QF72. I just blame the US Navy! I remember flying near "Harold Holt" on the run down from Kuala Lumpur to Perth in the early-80s and strange things happening to my avionics (that was a 747, not an AB).......
Last edited by Welsh Wingman; 5th August 2011 at 21:46.