SQ 006 - what happened to the flight crew?

[Invaribly]

Question:What are the flight crew of that flight doing now?Are they back flying?
Question:WHY was the third pilot on the flight deck detained for so long after the crash?He was presumably not on duty at the time and as such carried no reponsibility.Am I wrong?For all we know he could have been reading the news paper during taxi and was perfectly entitled to do so.Why did he get so much grief over all this nonsense?

[fullforward]

Excuse me Invarbly, but a third crewmember(a pilot!...) on a cockpit, before takeoff on a stormy evening would AT LEAST be monitoring the taxi and the radio, on behalf of it's own ass!...and definitely not entitled to be reading newspapers at that time.
I know about more than one airline that have a policy that demands the third crewmember act as a backup during critical phases.

Obviously, all of this do not concedes to the SQ's right to do all that investigation on the poor man...

[Invaribly]

Fullforward,that seems crazy.I mean who is actually on duty here?I thought the 747 - 400 was a 2 man crew aircraft ;not so?
I take your point but it seems to me that the third pilot should be in the clear ...fully.

[whalecapt]

I can assure you, there are SQ pilots who prefer to vacate the flight deck and occupy a cabin seat during critical phases, simply to avoid a situation like that referred to above. Reason? To avoid being implicated in any poor decisions made by an operating captain who refuses sound advice. Should any incident subsequently come to the attention of the 4th floor, the consequences that inevitably follow will fall upon him as much as those directly responsible, regardless of the part he may, or may not, have played!
It's part of the culture.

[HotDog]

Most airlines carry a third pilot on long sectors on the 744 for in flight relief. They are mostly second officers who prepare takeoff and landing data cards, copy the ATIS and weather and most certainly monitor the actions of the operating crew as part of their on going training to qualify as first officers. They would certainly not read the newspaper during taxy.

[fullforward]

HotDog,

I've just made a point!
This is a MANDATORY practice at the airline I fly for and so many others.
But, once again, I don't think this third man could share a responsibility degree even comparable to that of whom is actually on the controls.
It surprises me that at SQ it is the pilot option to be at the flight deck or not during these phases.

[In the slot]

As in all cases, there are 2 sides to the coin, or opininons at both extremes.....
3 of 4 pilots in a 2 man flight deck, is it a case of
1/ Many hands (or eyes) make light work
OR
2/ Too many cooks spoil the broth

In an ideal world, the more eyes the better, though of course this assumes a good level of CRM, and that the operating crew do not suffer from "loss of face syndrome" and that the management do not find the 3rd/4th pilot as answerable if a problem occurs. The 3rd pilot is in a tough position as he is expected to be there if he is an F/O, and has a bird's eye view of what is happening, though his ability to change the events is quite limited depending on the attitude of the operating Capt and F/O, which may not be exactly ideal as we all know.

"Heavy" captains enjoy the cappuccino in business class, or watch 'em like a hawk!
"Heavy" F/O's monitor everything as if it's your last flight before command training!

4th floor, as usual, WAKE UP!!!!!

[Argus Tuft]

In an ideal world, in those conditions, the PF (Capt) would have been taxiing, the PNF (F/O) supporting and following where the aircraft was on his airport diagram, and the S/O should have had the PF's airport diagram, backing up and crosschecking the PNF's taxiing directions.

Due to this very accident, I personally will do it no other way in similiar conditions.

A S/O who let the Captain and F/O make this sort of error is just as culpable as the other two, particularly considering his workload at the time.

[ShotOne]

The point we should be deabating is WHY the flight crew were arrested and detained after the accident at all. Nobody from air traffic control, and more particularly no airfield operations manager -who in view of the inadequately marked runway was arguably at least as culpable -were arrested or locked up.

[fullforward]

Shotone,

Valid point too!
ARRESTED!....OH, NO!...

[twitchy]

Its high time that all the guys here in SQ should start collecting money which can be given to the pilots of SQ 006 for their rehabilitation after they are fired(may be end of this year). This is the hard fact of life in SQ.

I DON'T FORGIVE EVEN ONE MISTAKE OF YOURS. MAKING THEM IS MY BIRTH RIGHT...SQ

[0.88M]

Flt crews are fine and healthy.
Don't think SQ would be continuing with them once the investigation is concluded.
Company is not compassionate enough to see past "accidents".
As for flt crews on -line , 5-8 miles low on profile and gear down can reduce
"4th floor" visits.
Think this the new definition of low-drag approach.