Originally Posted by
Machinbird
PF had to be all tensed up with his mitt firmly around the stick. Probably with his arm not properly supported as well. Hard to keep from pulling a stick back inadvertently under those conditions. (But keep in mind I've never sat in an Airbus Cockpit).
I don't think even with a death-grip on the stick it would be possible to inadvertently pull halfway back without intending to - there's a fair amount of travel involved. But the kicker is that he *slammed it back against the stop* from 2:11:40 to 2:12:15, and there is absolutely no way that could be done accidentally.
One of the things that has occurred to me recently is that with the arrival of big and powerful high-bypass engines 35 years ago, much was made of the "rocketship approach" to things like windshear - which over the years may have been corrupted into a belief that modern engines are powerful enough to get you out of almost anything. This fits with the PF's comments about being in TOGA, in that he may have believed that with the donks at full chat stall was an impossibility. I don't know what kind of groundschool knowledge was imparted to AF cadets, but if the fact that the higher you get, the less effective the engines are was not drilled in then it could have contributed to that kind of misconception. Obviously you have SOPs for things like engine-out in cruise in which descent to a lower flight level is necessary, but were the cadets ever taught why?