Originally Posted by
AerocatS2A
Just curious: If the 737 elevator can't be split then what happens if the jam occurs in the elevator itself?
Then you would be stuck. It is simply not a good system, and would not pass modern certification.
As I understand the system, you are simply overriding a jammed control column (an unlikely scenario). So any jam in the cabling or in one elevator has no possibility of an override. And even when you do override the other cc (if a cc can jam...), the forces are so high and the control so limited, the aircraft is all but uncontrollable. (Only what training dept said, they have never let me try it after 20 years on the 737.) While other aircraft like the 146 have a complete split between the entire system, with a separated control system to a separated elevator. A much more sensible system, that we could demonstrate on the sim each and every year.
In the case of one pilot pushing and one pulling, on a 737 with a split torque tube, I think the result will be no elevator displacement. The one will cancel the other.
The channel suggested -- citing specialists while stressing that this was not the official version -- that the pilot accidentally switched on a stabilising fin at the tail as he tried to pull the plane back to a horizontal position.
I think this means that he had his finger stuck on the trim-switch, by accident. Trimming in the wrong direction, perhaps, or forgetting to stop trimming. Not sure whay that should happen, but it sort of makes sense of the report here.