Pendulum swinging opinions
As much as I would like to be enlightened by this incident, to use it to prevent another occurring, it just doesnt seem to be the case anymore...I frankly cant see justification in putting what appears to be a perfectly good aircraft into the sea.. All those factors that have been mentioned fatigue, culture, beliefs training etc etc... Just start to sound like excuses to me after a while...ALL pilots should arrive at the minima with no preconcieved idea of what to expect.. Unplugging everything in what was obviously ( at some point) marginal conditions is asking for trouble if you dont have to do it... Of course we all make mistakes, and aircraft are very safe but will we as a community learn anything that will prevent the same thing happening again... Probably not as these errors have all been made before ... This is just a variation on the same theme... It may have been safer to leave lnav / vnav in and just let the autopilot fly to the ground most likely would have ended up on the runway with a heavy landing ... But that is just an opinion.. Glad no one hurt but if I read the same thing happened next week somerwhere else, I would not be surprised... It is getting monotonous hearing about ground collisions off NPAs again and again... sorry if I sound hard as*ed about this but I weary of the guys in the front seats doing silly ( if unwittingly!) things...