Bubbers wrote: “ Three airline pilots couldn't do it?”
ChrisN
I seem to recall mention of the 3rd guy (relief FO) calling out “descent rate” more than once. Correct? If so, was it a cockpit gradient issue that the two senior guys up front ignored him? Or the old issue of the audio channel being the first to get overloaded?
The descent rate was a symtom of the primary cause, dropping low on airspeed. Therefore the relief FO should had named the real problem, a speed problem.
I dont´t think, the descent rate call was ignored at all, it may have caused the pilot to increase pitch, which agrevated the speed problem without having any noticable effect on arresting the descent.
I go with bubbers there.