Uplinker please know (or indeed remember) a fact about the A330 when discussing the performance of the First Officer that night, the A330 stall warner is suppressed below 60 knots because the computers believe the aircraft to be on the ground below that speed. It is incredibly unfortunate because when the First Officer was pulling back on the stick the audible warnings were going away. Therefore he (wrongly) believed he was doing the right thing at the time. From what I read about the crash the picture in the flight deck was incredibly confused and I don't think they really trusted anything instrument wise. Would anyone conceive that an airborne A330 could be travelling at an airspeed LESS than 60 knots? Incredible but all so sadly true in this case.
Yes the crash was poorly handled as we know. But don't treat the guy like an idiot because the only one who sat in his seat at the time was him alone. It is highly possibly he believed the aircraft to be overspeeding given the lack of airspeed information and an audible warning that went away when he applied back pressure. Which of us could honestly say that we definitely wouldn't have been led into the same trap given the same set of unfortunate circumstances in the middle of the night on a long haul flight crossing time zones? It would be incredibly arrogant to rule it out.
Last edited by RexBanner; 15th Oct 2013 at 03:05.