When it reached 80kt, an audible warning sounded “retard, retard, retard”, instructing the pilots to idle the throttles, the FAA report says. The first officer told the captain she had never heard that warning during take-off. “We’ll get that straight when we get airborne,” the captain responded.
Wow, its been a long time since I've flown a 'bus but I find it hard to believe a crew would ignore a takeoff warning at 80 knots.
Maybe 25 years ago in the '72 you might pull a breaker to cancel a warning on the takeoff roll if you were
sure it was spurious. As several crashes have proven, this was not a good idea even back then.
But these days, every warning and message is logged 'for maintenance' and increasingly this 'de-identified safety data collection' will catch up with you.
I've done rejects (low speed) and go-arounds for procedural reasons in the modern era even though I 'knew' the gear was really down or the pack would reset in the climb. What used to be considered operational judgment based on experience and systems knowledge has evolved into CYA read the steps from the QRH into the CVR. And then write the fault into the logbook with the correct secret code numbers and letters from the FRM with cites from the FCOM as required.
Anyway, any A320 drivers know if the plane would have flown OK if the throttles (or whatever they are called on a 'bus) were put in TOGA position at the initial warning ding? Or, would they still have the 'retard' message at 80 knots since the thrust data was not input?