Quote:
Originally Posted by chiglet
For those who didn't read the article, here's the Cliff's Notes:
• Captain leaves cockpit to visit lav
• Notices airplane pitching down
• Regains access to cockpit using access code (takes 40 seconds)
• Arrests steep dive (26º nose down) and resumes normal flight
• Uneventful completion of flight
The only way I could see this happening with a competent FO at the controls is if he suffered a stroke or heart attack and slumped forward against the control column.
But further reading shows that it was determined that the FO hit the control column while adjusting his seat forward (I can't even imagine how this was done unless he was actually using the control column to pull himself forward; the seat can't hit the controls). This took the autopilot from CMD mode (where it follows the Flight Director input) to CWS mode (Control Wheel Steering mode, where the A/P maintains the aircraft attitude as set by pilot inputs to the control column).
[Side note: I'm not that familiar with CWS mode as our planes have that mode disabled, perhaps because of potential situations like this. If I were to hit the control column with this much force, it would disengage the A/P and an associated aural and visual warning would alert the pilot that the A/P is no longer flying the plane.]
The following paragraph from this article really has me shaking my head at the incompetence of this First Officer:
Quote:
The chime [W0X0F: this is the altitude alert because they were more than 250' off their altitude] however caused panic with the first officer and he pushed the control column forward with a force of about 50lbs. 15 seconds later he attempted to pull the control column, however the airplane continued to descend, so he pushed the control column forward again and the airplane continued to pitch down.
This guy is apparently at the pre-solo stage of flying capability. Why you would ever push forward on the controls when the airplane is already descending is beyond me. It's real "outside the box" thinking, I'll give him that.
Caveat Aviator: This is the risk you run when you fly on some third world airlines. I don't mean to sound elitist about it, but I know second hand from friends who are flying in some of these countries that they often fly with FOs who are very marginal. The airline hires type rated Americans because they don't have enough home-grown talent and then they put newbies in the right seat. The idea is that the FO will develop experience on the job and eventually move to the left seat. According to my friends, there's a wide range of capabilities among the FOs and sometimes it's essentially a single pilot operation.