Originally Posted by
henra
Sorry but the Key Instruction they were given is "180" and "Southbound". REPEATEDLY. What part of 180 is so difficult to understand?
.......
What is so difficult to understand in "Southbound"?? How many "South's" did they have on their Compass?
......
The difficulty/confusion was the
DIRECTION OF TURN to get there. Left? Or right? Left is towards traffic they have just been told STOP CLIMB! for and Right is towards high ground - and they've been levelled off.
The controller has told us to turn LEFT then RIGHT then LEFT. Which way does she bloody-well want us to turn to get southbound? The most recent direction was left - does she mean go that way? Or the more direct way which is right?
When faced with two diametrically-opposed options, the human reaction is often to do nothing. Human Factors stuff. You need to clarify, and do so quickly.
Can you blokes truly not put yourself in that cockpit and picture this confusion?
I have 15,000 hours of 744/767/737 experience and I can picture this - how one insidious mistake is compounded by further factors and the whole thing can go pearshaped in a matter of minutes.
I really do wonder about the real world flying experience of some of the Monday morning quarterbacks around here who assert that this was primarily the crew's fault. Walk a mile in his shoes, etc etc