Carjockey...
@Nigel on Draft
Quote: Is their no backup system available in the event of pitot tube failure?
Quote:
Well, yes there is. The other 2 pitot tubes. Trouble is when there is a common problem affecting mroe than 1.
So that means that there is no effective backup system, correct?
Disagree. Many systems on aircraft are duplicate, but identical systems. Not just ASIs, but Altimeters, Engines etc. If we followed your logic, on a twin engine aircrraft, one would be RR, one GE etc.
That was my point, there are obviously major faults in the system design
Diaagree. Pilots are on aircraft to fly them, and the ability to be cope when the automatic systems fail. Not v-v. APs are there to reduce fatigue, increase capacity & accuacy (RVSM). After any major / multiple failure, if the integrity of the AFS cannot be assured, it should audibly and clearly "give up", as it did here,
not try to fly the aicraft with incomplete / inadequate / non-verifiable data.
But how effective was the training / skill / practice in this case?
Insufficient. And I would say it was, and still is, in most airlines across the world. The majority of pilots do not have a solid depth of expeirence to fall back on, and of those that do, few get (or take) the opportunity to keep those skills current.
Please do me a favour and tell me who you are and which airline you fly for, because I do not want to be on any flight under your control
Well I won't, since it would break the T&Cs I work under. But if you really are anything to do with aviation you could work it out
As an aside, I have a military background, both jet instructing, and fast jet flying. I tend to manually fly, at work, to/below 20K'. I fly / display / compete and teach GA inc aerobatics and upset training. I teach / fly display ex-mil jet trainers / FJs. I am very lucky to be able to do that, and to have had the opportunity / luck to have the training I got. It is not available to all. It might be that background that leads me to hope I could have coped with the situation these guys found themselves in. It is that background to realise that many might not fair much better than this crew did.
The report covers it under "startle factor". Unless and until we take crews, in sims or aircraft, and regularly (say a <6 month cycle, not ~3 yrs) give them unanticipated multiple systems failures and expect their raw handling and management skills to cope, we will get (a few) such accidents.