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Old 7th Jul 2012, 05:25
  #146 (permalink)  
ATC Watcher
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Why did the pilot flying pull back on the stick at 37,000 feet when the stall warning first initiated?
The answer to that one was given during the BEA debrief/press briefing : There was a sudden Christmas tree with lots of warning , sounds including ice pellets hitting the windows and most probably the PF concentrated his action looking at one thing only and erasing all others, especially the sounds. This is a normal physiological reaction apparently. Brain prioritize visuals clues above sounds.

This reminds me of the 3 Miles islands nuclear accident where the operators collectively concentrated on the reading of a single faulty gauge to initiate a meltdown. Only when the relieving crew came on duty at 07:00 (3 or 4 hours after the incident) did someone immediately realized the error and stopped the plant from exploding. But during 3 or 4 hours a group of very trained engineers disregarded all other valid warnings believing they were false and concentrated on a single thing that happen to be the wrong one..

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
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