It is a difficult one; considering what is happening in other life threatening industries e.g. health. I wonder if the quote from the captain, when confronted by the police, "we did everything by the book," could really let him off from a compounded negligence charge once the evidence was out. A mistake is a mistake; an accident an accident; but if the program is true and he ignored >15 warnings that it was all going to end in tears AND the call from the F/O to escape from this descending spiral, one has to consider just how far you can take this 'blameless, it was an accident' idea. It suggested that the F/O had warned about the 320kts speed in descent. Was this guy using VNAV for guidance? If so there would have been further clues, ignored, long before. It seemed a little late to dive for the glide. Could fixation really be the mitigating circumstance? Total sensory overload? This was not a 'taken by surprise; it jumped out and bit me' type accident. If it was overload, cumulative, should someone remain a captain?
This is an interesting accumulation of circumstances considering the thread about newbies and modern technology. Both pilots had sufficient experience and the captain must be slightly old-tech school.
Having said that; as a trainer the program didn't tell how the accident happened. It told me why the a/c went off the end. That was the final curtain. The show must have begun before TOD and continued during the descent, but why? I always like to look for the root cause of an error so I can help find a good solution in prevention and open some eyes into proactive planning. Does anyone know anything extra?
And, what happens in coach/bus/train/ship crashes? I have the idea that their investigations, including human factors, are not yet at aviation level.
Last edited by RAT 5; 5th Jan 2016 at 17:02.