Do monitoring / intervention work, or is the concept flawed?
It might be the ideal but in my experience it is more often than not clouded by ethnic culture. This is a culture bred into some where seniority, respect for age and perceived experience - and finally a marked fear for job security - strongly influences against intervention. A first officer in these cultures may well see an adverse situation developing - whether caused by the captain's incompetence or something external such as bad weather ahead. Ideally, and no doubt having been taught about CRM, he will say something. It may be an inaudible murmur on the intercom so as not to create perceived offence, or it may something be stronger. Or he may say nothing thinking the captain always knows best
because he is the captain.
Only a few months ago this writer was giving simulator refresher training to an airline crew from China. During the pre-flight briefing on the dangers posed by an unstable approach, I posed the scenario of an unstable approach that was so bad it was must be obvious to the first officer that the captain was fixated on continuing the approach and that no doubt his mind-set was "it can't happen to me" so he continues to barrel down the glide slope at high speed.
Everything is set for a disaster if things continue as they are.
I asked what options are open to the first officer to prevent a certain accident if the captain continues ? The same question was asked of other crews of the airline on the same course of refresher training. The first officers hours varied between 300 and 2000 hours total time.
All agreed that advising the captain of being too fast, or too high, or too low would be the first action. A few said they would suggest to the captain he should go around. Not all agreed with that - indicated perhaps by their refusal to comment in front of the others.
Asked what would be their options if the captain ignored their calls and pressed on regardless, everyone went to ground and were silent. Asked if they would consider taking over control from the captain and going around, all except one remained silent. .
That first officer hesitated then slowly put up his hand to reply and I am sure his words echoed in the minds of the others who had said nothing.
He said "I would never consider taking over control from the captain because he
is the captain of the aircraft".
Their culture dictates absolute respect for their elders, no matter what private thoughts they may have about their technical or mental competency. Loss of face is a characteristic of many Eastern cultures. The thought of causing loss of face to the captain if his first officer dared to take over control, is something too unbearable to think about. That means in some societies, rather than take decisive action, there are first officers who would prefer to stoically accept whatever fate awaited them and their unfortunate passengers..