Even if that leads him to stall a perfectly serviceable aircraft on approach, for example? Unbelievable.
During recurrent training we briefed and flew the NG accident into Amsterdam. I was shocked at how difficult the scenario was to fly out of – even having briefed it beforehand. I am not interested in rearguing all the aircraft (multiple write ups regarding a failed radar altimeter) and crew failures leading up to the accident.
Duplicating the scenario in the simulator was an “education” for me.
With the trim rolled back and the airspeed so low when one mashes the power the beast wants to stand on her tail. It took both hands shoving on the yoke to keep her from going vertical, momentarily I was frozen by what I was seeing that I was overloaded (even after having briefed it). For me it wasn’t salvageable until I “remembered” the trim. With both hands shoving the yoke and the trim rolling away she began to behave like an airplane again. I was so shocked by what I was presented with I insisted on flying the same maneuver three times. If you haven’t actually flown it I would strongly recommend you do-just for the “experience”.
For many reasons; I say the following with regret and respect some were self induced, that crew faced a very difficult scenario. When I first read the report I was puzzled why the crew did not “just recover from a nose high stall”. Now that I have flown the scenario I appreciate the difficulty that they faced in a very different way.
You pilots and managers in the rapidly expanding nations are in an enviable position in that you have the opportunity to take the best of what has already been learned by the manufacturers and legacy carriers and improve upon it yourselves. The challenge is being willing to change, recognize and then not repeat the mistakes we in the “west” have already made.
For example KLM/Pan Am; it is not enough to bring that event up only to serve as a rebuttal to somebody in the West criticizing a CRM or steep cockpit gradient. “Look your boys killed a whole bunch of people, so you are not better, therefore shut up and do not disrespect us” may be emotionally satisfying but not to apply the lessons learned is truly tragic.
The Canadians have a wonderful safety publication that runs one of my all time favorite sayings: learn from the mistakes of others, you will not live long enough to make them all yourself.
To those of you laboring at Turkish, and other carriers around the globe, to improve the carrier by every means possible, including painful self critique if necessary, you have my upmost respect. Best of luck to all of you!