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The fact remains that this crash was 99% pilot error. The A/T displaying "RETARD" for something like 60 seconds and the airspeed got down to something stupid li
by ecliptic_pole 7y ago
The fact remains that this crash was 99% pilot error. The A/T displaying "RETARD" for something like 60 seconds and the airspeed got down to something stupid like 80 knots (airspeed is prominently displayed in at least 3 places right in front of both pilot's faces) so it was pretty obvious that the auto approach was not correctly configured, but what did the pilots do? Nothing. They just sat there gormlessly for over a minute, oblivious to dozens of warning signs right in front of them. No pilot should rely on the radio altimeter so much that they literally fall out of the sky when it fails.
Every single Boeing plane has two buttons called "autopilot disconnect" and "autothrottle disconnect", and when you press them, then you can fly the plane and it will do exactly what you tell it to do. I mean fly the plane, i.e. left hand on yoke, right hand on throttle, feet on pedals. If those systems fail, then yes, blame the manufacturer. But those systems basically never fail.
- tapland 7y agoWhen landing there is a lot going on. I don't know how airliners do it but at those airspeeds and especially when landing an audio readout of airspeed for every 10 knots dropped would be very useful.
- ecliptic_pole 7y agoBoeing planes do have some features like that, one is called GPWS ("Ground Proximity Warning System") and it yells things like "Sink Rate, Pull Up"! and then it makes obnoxious "Whoop! Whoop!" noises. There's also the "stick shaker" which literally starts violently vibrating the stick (which is basically in between your legs so it's impossible not to notice) and also makes a lot of noise. But I don't believe any amount of aural warnings will help a pilot who has decided to leave the autopilot on below 1000 feet when it's perfectly obvious the plane isn't correctly configured at all.
- _-___________-_ 7y agoTurkish does seem to have some kind of problem with the landing phase in general: * THY A333 at Port Harcourt on Dec 31st 2019, runway excursion, tyre damage * THY B738 at Odessa on Nov 21st 2019, runway excursion and nose gear collapse on landing * THY B738 at Lviv on Jan 6th 2019, runway excursion during backtrack * THY A321 at Bucharest on Jun 22nd 2017, overran runway on landing * THY B738 at Pristina on May 2nd 2016, runway excursion on landing * THY A319 at Sochi on Sep 28th 2016, ATC prevented controlled flight into terrain * THY B738 at Nice on Aug 27th 2016, went through extended centerline and descended below safe height * THY A321 at Tbilisi on May 5th 2016, hard landing * THY A343 at Antananarivo on Jan 9th 2016, touched down short of runway * THY A333 at Kathmandu on Mar 4th 2015, runway excursion and nose gear collapse * THY A320 at Istanbul on Apr 25th 2015, hard landing, go-around, engine problem, gear problem, gear collapse, runway excursion I could go on...
- daedalus_f 7y agoHuman beings are very bad at diagnosing failures in complex systems when under intense pressure. Perception and cognition can be significantly affected and even normally highly competent and trained individuals can make poor decisions at times of high stress. I’m not qualified to judge how much of this was down to pilot error, but the risk is ascribing it purely to this and moving on takes away emphasis from redesigning the system to give the flawed human beings piloting the plane the best chance of making the right decision next time.