Originally Posted by
roulishollandais
That is the anti Airbus brigade theory!
Actually, I'd disagree with that. It was a very valid criticism of the FCU display, and one which had occurred before - but on those previous occasions the mistake had been caught in time. For another thing, I think the same issue was present on other mfrs types which had Honeywell hardware with a FPA/VS descent mode on the glareshield interface.
Of course there were other issues as well, but from a technical perspective this non-intuitive aspect of the FCU interface was probably the most glaring issue that needed to be fixed.
The crew respected "don't descend 4300 FT before 9 NM to STR due to possible false GPWS warning"
Except, of course, that (IIRC) due to a regulatory loophole regarding domestic commercial flights, the Air Inter A320s were not fitted with GPWS, and that was another *massive* issue that needed to be fixed.
Victims were less happy and let me add that they took a wrong way :
1. Creating an association of victims after a crash cannot be used in French Law to get damage (we don't have Class Action)
That appears to be changing now (article from Feb 2014):
France Finally Embraces Class Actions | Publications | McDermott Will & Emery
[EDIT : It appears the court did nevertheless find AF and Airbus liable for damages in 2006 :
http://www.aviationpros.com/news/103...-in-1992-crash ]
2. Trying to manipulate the Court "to get more money" (from Airbus) was a very very bad idea.
Right, and I have to wonder whether the SNPL were involved in the decision to pursue Airbus but not AF (Capt. Asseline's legal representatives did the same in the Habsheim court case and in doing so missed an open goal - to this day I can't fathom why).
@Winnerhofer - re: contaminated blood, it didn't just happen in France, but also the UK and other places. In fact a good friend of mine (he's a fair bit older than me) sadly now carries Hep C as a result of a transfusion of contaminated blood in the early '80s.
Anyways - I think that's about as far off-topic as I dare to go! Back to the gallery...