Originally Posted by
RickNRoll
If you push the switch and it is in a mode which stops it doing anything, do the pilots get a warning that it's not going to do anything?
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. For example if you press the the autopilot button when on the ground in my aircraft, nothing happens. Nothing! But move a power lever beyond a certain value and the takeoff configuration warning is activated even though no engines are running and you are parked at the gate. Other times certain modes don't as advertised and at other times they just refuse to engage. But overall it doesn't really matter. We've been taught for the last 25 years or so to look on the FMA bar and engine performance displays to determine what the aircraft thinks is going to happen. If you don't like what you see, you do something about it. That's why we still have a job.
These compo hungry passengers would be better off taking Emirates to court in erm... Ah. That's a problem! Maybe people should think who they fly with for when things really go wrong.
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