Originally Posted by
baron_beeza
That I very much doubt. Some were not even in the cockpit.
One wasn't - and that was par for the course, because Mulgrew had to be in there.
All the warnings were there
What warnings?
The crew thought they were going to descend under radar guidance.
They thought they *were* under radar guidance, and so did the Captain (by way of the transponder light blinking on and off).
The Captain initiated a descent without even consulting the crew.
The CVR says different. How's a DC-10 Captain supposed to initiate a descent without the FO seeing the control column, altimeter and artificual horizon? The first words of unease came once they were already down, and the Captain immediately decided to climb.
How did they ascertain their position before the descent ? I believe they did not.
That's the million-dollar question. Captain Collins' ringbinder, in which he kept all his material, was retrieved from the mountain ice with all its pages intact and with legible writing, according to the team member that found it. It was handed to ANZ's Chief Pilot Capt. Gemmell for "safe keeping", and subsequently appeared in Auckland at the inquest with all its pages missing.
This had the effect of destroying the one piece of evidence that could conclusively confirm or refute that Capt. Collins had done his due diligence and was checking off his position, and making sure that it would forever be in doubt. For my part, I'm deeply suspicious of the fact that the evidence disappeared while in the care of the man who had a lot to lose if pilot error was not found to be the cause.