Originally Posted by
Mark in CA
Read Mr. Bailey's article with interest. He present a compelling argument for the confusion may have happened (or not) when the PF initiated the TOGA using the switch. But I didn't see where he explained why the PNF (apparently mistakenly) thought the aircraft had achieved the positive rate of climb necessary before retracting the landing gear, or why, even if it he thought it had, he didn't leave the gear down as Boeing recommends for a TOGA after a bounced landing.
Just as pilots shouldn't "rely" on automatics, but rather use them in a "Trust, but verify" manner at an appropriate level depending on the regime or maneuver, this mantra also holds true for working as a crew. A PF's command to raise the gear after a PNF/PM's "Pos Climb" callout should only be given after PF also verifies the pos climb and therefore the callout is appropriate. I'd be shocked if EK's SOPs left only one pilot in a loopless, monitoring/decision-making/action process for a configuration change, pushing blind reliance on him/her by the other during a critical phase of flight.
Since my assumption is that EK SOPs provide for gear-retraction as a 2 pilot-looped operation, a cognitive breakdown/mistake on the part of one, whether PF or PNF/PM, is expected to be picked up by the other via verification before any action takes place. This is fundamental and has nothing to do with the intricacies of automatics peculiar to specific aircraft, but has everything to do with with a mindset of "reliance". Because humans are fallible, blind reliance on another human w/o verifying leads down the road to merely parroting a script of commands at certain triggers regardless of reality and, in the wrong set of circumstances, outside every pilot's prime directive to always fly the aircraft.
Reliance on automatics due to their complications and/or peculiar gotchas get a lot of bandwidth, deservedly so, but it shouldn't be forgotten that countering the root...a propensity to lapse into a mindset of reliance (which is a lapse in SA) itself...has a broader application that helps maintain vigilance across the spectrum to include fallible humans as well.