A couple of holiday snaps on a DOH departure suggest there's no shortage of visual cues, certainly at the early stage of a departure.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....eef81e67a.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f63550c91.jpeg

The first picture is northbound. The incident aircraft departed 16L so as soon as the left turn initiated you're into the blackness over the sea. Not defending them, just providing some context.

I can tell you that those lighted roads in the lower picture can cause some spatial disorientation. Flying into New Orleans, there is a road that crosses a large waterway, and its direction and vector will mess with your senses. It’s similar to Air to Air Refueling with a sloping cloud deck. You may be in level flight, but the cloud-deck makes one feel as if in a bank. Dangerous.

The HUD is predominantly used only for LV approach’s though, why would you use it on a night VMC departure?

After a "1000" auto aural call out and a "terrain terrain" warning?

Automation dependency rears its ugly head again.

When I’m inside messing with the fms, I don’t expect the other guy to suffer spatial disorientation.

I’ve never flown with a HUD. Could the FO have been looking through the hud at something in the background and ignoring the symbology? If that’s a possibility, it seems you’d be better off looking at the PFD.

On the earlier question of HUDs, I recall reading some time ago that dual HUDs are standard on the 787.

Sounds like something that has happened before and will continue to do so.

Captain heads down trying to find the direct to waypoint. Keep in mind the SIDs out of DOH have lots of closely spaced points and the direct to's there can be on the second/third legs page. Can take longer than usual to find the point and bring it to the top.

Effo decides he will start turn in the approximate direction of the cleared to point. Poor guy banks 25, neglects to keep pitch up (I'm unaware of the trim characteristics on the 787 but the 737 needs manual pitch and/or trim inputs). Transition from peripheral city visual cues off to the right with a turn into a black hole with randomly spaced lit ships off the coast. Down goes the nose.

Where's that point. Ah got it. Heads up and GPWS warning. Whatcha doin' there buddy? Oh crap. I have control!!!

Question is much before the terrain alert there should be a don't sink aural. That should've prevented the supposed 3000fpm and late identification of loss of altitude.

We use it for all operations below 10,000’.

Do you turn off / dim your PFD for VMC departures? Of course not - use all available instrumentation…

It indeed has killed many. But honestly , why it has to continue? Banking hard looking down whether it is a a black hole or at a point of interest you are likely to end up in a spiral dive at one point or another since the beginning of flying. and basically at low level you should seriously monitor your turns . This used to be basic PPL hand flying knowledge
Punching numbers or waypoints right after take off while banking on manual at night over the sea is not a bright idea,. Why they became complacent in thinking it was ok to do ? too easy aircraft that 99% of the time fly by itself ?
When I was a student pilot in the air force , the briefing after our very first nav solo on the jet was a reminder on the rule that it was absolutely prohibited to fly above parents or girl friend house on the way back. . Reason was too many young guys got killed and/or crashed aircraft in wanting to say hello, banking hard above the house. while looking at the people waving on the ground. That was 50 years ago, I wonder if this rule still exists...

it isn't the overspeed of the flaps itself that is the problem, it is the better than even chance that the crew when confronted with the next alert for the overspeed end up retracting the flaps while overspeeding... It is a small minority of crews that don't compound overspeeds by flicking switches levers and bell cranks into eye pleasing order, instead of just correcting the flight path. The system is pretty tolerant, if abused enough stuff falls off but more often than not it is remarkably benign. There were the two checkers in a B74F competing for the lowest rung that flicked the flaps just so and the ind RH trailing element came off did a pirouette/flettnery thingy and speared into the fuselage at 90 degrees like a lawn dart. Post shut down, "Nil Defects", but the maintenance engineer noticed the rearranged flaps. Failed in overload... biggly! Ferried back home with lotsa speed tape de-press'd, and got parted out, cancelled the amendment service for the applicable AMM/AFM etc.. Blenders flew again... gear did too. flaps... not so much.

I've got a picture I took from the 4th FDJ in the cruise at Sunset of the HUD. FWIW (Probably nothing)

I just read from another source, that when the Captain was playing with the FMS, the FO wasn't following the commands of the FD as he made an earlier turn of what would be the direction of travel. So the earlier reports or as per AvHerald of missing FD are incorrect. The aircraft I fly for IFR ventures don't have FD as we don't have a digital autopilot, so limited to flying without guidance - I suspect a huge somatogravic illusion happened to the FO who wasn't expecting incorrect FPV or FD indications? Not giving excuses to the FO, but do you get the transition of turbulence crossing the land to the cooler sea like you do at most place which makes looking at the HUD a bit more disor

P.s. I think it's standard Boeing Procedure to use the HUD in all phases of flight.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c08fad0539.jpg
B789 HUD

So between a HUD and a PFD, a turn to a heading without the use of the flight directors should not be a difficult task. This incident boggles the mind unless the pilot flying was incapacitated somehow.

Or dog tired?!

News is talking about a United near accident now....

United Airlines plane taking off from Maui plunged to within 800 feet of the Pacific Ocean, flight data shows (msn.com)

Thread here https://www.pprune.org/accidents-clo...near-cfit.html

FWIW on the queen of the skies, (which sometimes took a few seconds to work out direct to) we would goto HDG SEL spin the heading dial to something like the right direction, giving the correct flight director readings. When PM and the FMS have worked out the precise direction, PF glanced down at the nav display, agrees it's correct, PM activates it and they switch back to NAV mode. Simples!

And safe. Overriding the FD less so. Not hard at all to over-control and induce a somewhat unusual attitude. Especially if doing it at night whilst the PM is head down and until they have finished playing Candy Crunch with the FMS. Bad practice.

This is good practice and recommended in Boeing ftm , no need to rush fms selection when a perfectly good map display is available together with hdg Sel .

It's also good practice to now how to execute a climbing turn with reference to instruments.