Check Airman
All the three incidents were avoidable by following manufacturer's recommendations. What one airline does or Boeing does has no priority over the design philosophy of the manufacturer. Air Blue fatal accident in Islamabad is another example of not checking FMA the captain kept dialling heading in NAV mode and when the heading went past 180 degrees he realised NAV mode and pulled to change to HDG aircraft turned shorter way into the hill.Off course there were host of other deviations but checking FMA would have prevented the last fatal blow. There is simply no point going over this. Calling FMA is not a may be item. Below is an extract of Airbus Performance and operations Conference 2011.
QUESTION6 – BRITISH AIRWAYS
Prioritizationof FMA calls versus “positive climb” and “gear up”?
AIRBUSANSWER
TheFMA is the “heart and soul” of the aircraft and should be checked first whenchanges of guidance are done. If a go- around is performed with AP ON, it isthe only way to check that the guidance will perform a go-around with specificguidance (SRS). The call “positive climb and gear up” is to check that theaircraft is climbing and thus drag can be reduced to increase the climbperformance.