Originally Posted by
ECAM_Actions
@oldchina: The problem is said aircraft was considered "impossible" to stall (no matter how crazy that idea actually is) prior to AF447. This has changed with stall awareness and recovery training now being mandated as a result.
Yes it is preposterous that any such suggestion would be made, but it is implied by the lack of training and the fact that FBW systems are infallible as far as Airbus and the regulators are concerned.
Wrong (IMO). Airbus were pretty bullish in the early days of the A320 project, but they long since reconsidered their opinions, and anyone in this day and age passing on the idea that an FBW Airbus "cannot stall" needs to be R'ing T F'ing M pretty sharpish.
Jcjeant mentioned that this situation is not new and that recommendations have been made - he also seemed to imply that the recommendations have not been heeded (though I'm personally not so sure). What is the case is that this is the first incident in a *long* time where it has happened at a major flag-carrier, and as such, anyone wishing to sweep it under the carpet is going to face an uphill struggle doing so. To the industry's credit, Airbus, Boeing and the EU and US regulators have jumped on this and have since put forward a major overhaul of training criteria as regards stall training, which is a step in the right direction, which hopefully will plug one hole in the cheese.
However, as an interested SLF I have to beseech the piloting community to press forward with this, using their organisation and the fact that they are one of the last remaining unionised and associated professional groups in the western world to explain to management in no uncertain terms that the rot has gone far deeper and needs to be cleaned up before we suffer another incident like this.
Speaking for myself, whatever I may feel about the causes - I don't care about blame. I don't care about the politics that will follow in the legal battle, where lawyers for all concerned parties will try to blame the other parties in an effort to minimise liability. I care about the system as a whole being made safer.