Originally posted by BOAC :
I thought PNF was 'Relief Captain'? To save me looking back, GC- you are saying PF(RHS) was ?
I thought this issue had been cleared long time ago.
In june 2009(*), AF's SOP specified that the FO flying from the right seat was PF
AND "
relief captain" during captain's rest.
Unfortunately, you do not get a copy/translation of this part of AF OPS manual in BEA's report.
You can see from the CVR extract that the captain asked Bonin if he had an ATPL licence to confirm that this FO was qualified to do the job (PF + "
relief captain" from the right seat) as per SOPs.
BEA has done a great job, so far, except for two misleading comments :
Note: The investigation has not made it possible to determine any task-sharing by the Captain at the time of flight preparation.
For one very good reason : it is impossible to determine any kind of rigid "task-sharing" in the briefing room prior to departure.
Any pilot knows that.
Worse :
The Captain’s departure was made without him leaving any clear operational instructions, in particular on the role of each of the two copilots. The absence of any formalised working framework for a crew made up of two copilots may have led to the non-optimal task-sharing observed between them.
The two FOs did not need any "instruction" since "the role of each of the two copilots" is (was) clearly specified in the company's SOP and NO exception is (was) possible. In june 2009(*), FOs were NOT trained to fly from the left seat and WERE trained to perform all "captain" duties from the right seat.
Hence, IMHO, the reluctance of the PNF to take over the controls from his "captain".
(*) : all this has been changed in the aftermath of the crash.