Originally Posted by 8sugarsugar
I guess what I was trying to say, if your two options are in Air Florida
1. not advancing power levers in fear of pitch up moment and crashing anyway
2. advancing power levers, accepting increased pitch up moment and praying to god you get at least 500 ft.
At least with #2, you hit terra firma softer and save some lives.
what would you do?
I have said from day one that had the flight crew pushed the throttles to the firewall at brake release
and initiated the rotation at the computed rotation speed exactly the same thing would have occurred
except as you note because of the aircraft attitude, the downward thrust vector
may have (no guarantee
but
may have) allowed the airplane to miss hitting the bridge and the 4 lives lost on that bridge would likely have not been lost. However, the location of the eventual impact (and there would have been an impact) would more likely have been closer to the middle of the Potomac River, although more upstream, making rescue of those who were rescued a lot more problematic. Who is to say what would have been the most advantageous decision? What I suspect is that throughout the entire 28 seconds they were airborne, they were trying to figure out what to do to fly the airplane heck, here we are some 30 years (!) after the fact
and I suspect there
still isnt a consensus.