Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
As to the whistleblower getting the axe ... so much for whistleblower protection laws.
I think the latest laws were written as a result of what happened there - too late to help the individual involved, sadly.
The problem with trying to trouble shoot a problem in an aircraft is that if you don't actually know what is broken, or what the failure mode is that you are trying to mitigate, it is easy to make the wrong decision and potentially make a wrong move.
Quite. As I said on another thread, Rule 1 is "Don't make it worse!".
I've seen it in real life when an engine went wrong in a twin engined helicopter, and the pilot flying identified incorrectly the engine that was low power, and tried to fly on that engine before I corrected him and he got the right emergency throttle selected.
The same problem reared its head on the Kegworth B734 with a much nastier outcome. Used to the B733 where AC bleed air came from the right engine only, the crew assumed that it was the right engine that was failing and shut it down. It was in fact the left engine that had lost and ingested blade debris. The B734 used bleed air from both engines, but this design change was not mentioned during conversion training.
The gents in Alaska 261 were, in terms of trouble shooting, in the blind insofar as what their real problem was. That they had a flight control problem was not as accurate a problem statement as they had a flight control linkage problem ... a lot different than what they seemed to have begun trouble shooting for.
Indeed - the problem first manifested as unresponsive trim, but everything else seemed to be OK. It'd be interesting to ask members who are or were Mad Dog crew how often trim problems cropped up on the line.