Originally Posted by
bubbers44
These guys were poorly trained and were not qualified to be flying that airplane. The only qualified pilot was taking his rest break so when he got up there he had little time to figure out how they had gotten into their situation.
That's a little harsh. Look at the transcripts and you'll see that the senior (albeit not by much) F/O - acting as PNF - seems painfully uncomfortable with how the aircraft is being handled, but it is only when the Captain arrives in the flight deck that he feels he has the authority to act (notably *emphatically* preventing the PF from deploying the speedbrakes). Up until that point he tries to correct the PF verbally, but does not take control of the aircraft.
The way I read it, it looks like he knew something was wrong, but because the Captain had implicitly put the junior F/O in charge, he felt he was unable to act beyond a certain point.
The situation that bothers me is that the Captain did not explicitly determine responsibilities before heading for his rest break. On top of that he elected to put the junior F/O, who was returning from vacation, in charge during the relief phase of the crew roster. This is illogical to me, especially given that he knew that they were about to transit the ITCZ during a time of year when it is known to be challenging to fly through. I don't know how it is for pilots, but when I'm back at work from vacation, it takes me a day or two until I'm properly "back in the groove".