Originally Posted by fox niner
That would be a pity, if true. It would put all the blame on that single snippet of information. My gut feeling is that there is much more to this accident. It really can't be that simple. Asiana would really love that,as it would (almost) clear their name entirely.
Of course there would be all sorts of directions that the industry and the media would run if there turns out to be any truth to that report. BUT, I don’t think the airline would be able to side-step ALL of the criticisms … simply due to the fact that, presumably anyway, the airline would have had to “train” that pilot in accordance to whatever training program(s) were/are required by their regulating agency. AND that still doesn’t explain how a training captain in the other seat would have, could have, sat on his hands long enough to have this particular situation develop to the degree that it did.
I have been saying for a while now, that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some sort of “cheat-sheet answer” issue may have been involved. I have seen more than my fair share of such “activity” that I’ve become “spring loaded” to the “suspicious position.” When I describe “cheat sheet activity” I mean learning some kind of deliberately contrived “set of numbers” or a “sequencing” of doing something” i.e., setting flaps, flying airspeeds, setting throttles, making control inputs or control reversals, etc., some of which are “held” for a given time and then something else may be done … and it all depends on what the effort was supposed to provide. The justification from most of those who practice such idiocy is that it either looks successful or actually is somewhat successful – and most of it was derived in a simulator – and, therefore, we’re back to the inherent problems with simulation accuracy. I have this “bias” because of the numbers of times I’ve seen, and my colleagues have seen, that precise form of “flying” that has proven to be “successful” enough times that otherwise lacking aviators use it to “get by” when they are being observed. If the “cheat sheet” approach is accurate enough and the lacking aviator performs it discretely enough, it all looks good enough that we only find out about it through careful observation of a simulator session or after sifting through the wreckage.