Originally Posted by
Mr Optimistic
But didn't the PNF take control only to have it snatched back, and this with the Captn present ?
Yes he did, but it was approximately 5 seconds before the Captain arrived, the PF took it back after less than 2 seconds, the PNF presumably turns to talk to the captain as he comes through the door and in the intervening time (approx 2 seconds after the Captain enters the flight deck - so the Captain should have heard it, albeit briefly) the stall warning stops.
I've not put this together before, so it raises some very interesting points and questions.
- At the start of the sequence, as autoflight trips out, the PF makes the callout "J’ai les commandes" ("I have the controls").
- The PNF was preoccupied with the return of the Captain (and unless I'm reading it wrong, increasingly unhappy with how the aircraft seems to be being handled) before finally deciding to take the controls himself, just before the Captain arrives. He says "Commande à gauche" ("Controls on the left"), takes priority and makes a small nose-down and left correction.
- Now I thought that statement was ambiguous to start with, and was roundly told that it meant he was making a left-stick input. Now I've seen he takes control, makes the callout *and* makes that input at the same time, I'm unsure again.
- Was he aware that the PF had taken back the controls without announcing it? (interconnection aside, that's a flagrant breach of procedure on the part of the PF *unless* he interpreted the PNF's "Commande à gauche" callout as an order to apply left stick and as far as he's concerned still has control. Can anyone clarify what the correct callouts should have been?)
- The stall warning stops just after the captain arrives, and just after the PNF took the controls and made a couple of small corrections (which were correct, but nowhere near enough). Does he think his corrections have solved the problem?
- Either way, that's an unfortunate set of time-critical coincidences.
- Five seconds after that, the PF makes his "crazy speed" remarks and starts to throw the speedbrakes out, prompting an emphatic warning from the PNF not to do so. How much more pressure and cognitive load can one guy take?
Hmmm...
@WW - I think the lack of properly defined command gradient is a much bigger problem in the case of this incident than the feedback issue. I say again - same thing has happened plenty of times with interconnected yokes and it made no difference to the outcome.