Originally Posted by
Old Boeing Driver
Maybe some Challenger guys here can let us know how much force it would take to over ride the pusher.
Otherwise, I would assume the only other way to over ride it would be to push the A/P disconnect? Probably happened too fast for that.
Force - a lot. Of the order of 75lbf. It's doable, but not without effort. Which is the point, since when it fires "for real" it needs to be able to do its job.
Challenger pusher doesn't work through the AP, so that wouldn't do anything. It
can be disconnected, but bear in mind it IS the designed-in stall protection system; if it's firing, it's trying to tell you something.
if they did end up low, slow and stalling at whatever altitude they reached on that 'bounce', I fear there was little left for the crew to do but pray. Which, since two of them have survived to tell the tale, maybe someone was listening to?