“I’ve lost VSI,” the junior co-pilot said of the Airbus’s vertical-speed indicator, according to a recording detailed in the report from court-appointed experts. In fact, the instrument was functioning normally, its analog needle immobilized at the lower limit because the plane was hurtling toward the ocean at 15,000 feet a minute, the document seen by Bloomberg News shows.
What about the digital readout? Should still have been there.
This shows quite clearly that all the advocates about "it's on the screens, just read it; who needs feedback?" are naive:
In stress, humans read badly. We need either tactile feedback or a more clear display than many of the digital displays.
Simply telling the pilots to read the five-color s#!thouse on reflecting and worn-out screens with a multitude of same color digital indicators and FMAs with five windows on three rows with zillions of different abbreviations is, to cite the Borg, futile.....
I do realize that there is no feedback on VSI, but there is a more intelligent display mode than the donkey's dick that just disappears on the lower end.
It's the tape-style color coded indicator on a MD11. It stays filled white and is way more legible, even under stress.