A report from Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council confirms that the captain of the ATR 72-600 turboprop aircraft mistakenly switched off the plane's working engine after the other lost power. (Photo: TVBS via CNN)
Wow? Wouldn’t “Oops” be more appropriate?
Capt. Sum Ting Wong at is again?
Sad.
So many stereotypical opportunities here.
I will never fly in an Asian operated airline.
Pilot error. Again. As usual. Unbelievable the pilot would throttle down the wrong engine.
Lord have mercy.
TransAsia Flight 235 videos:
(roll tape...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvwHwq4L0cY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUoGQZrHhWM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-T_ku9NWC4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibSOEE-5fTs
This actually happened on an airplane I was on back in the day on a KC-135Q. The fire light for the #2 engine came on due to a compressor stall that damaged the #1 engine shutting it down, while the Co-Pilot reached up and pulled the fire switch for the #3 engine. It was like the 3 Stooges with both pilots slapping each other’s hands to push the fire switch back in (too late cut out the #3) and then pull the #2 engine fire switch. Went from a 4 engine to 1 engine aircraft in seconds. Thank God it only happened at 90 knots or I would not be here to share.
Got to wonder if the airline has the same problem that plagued Korean Air for years. During the 80s and 90s, KAL had a loss rate that far exceeded western carriers; in fact, you’d have to look at Aeroflot and some of the Chinese start-ups to find a worse safety record.
After a KAL 747 plowed into a hillside in Guam in 1997, investigators determined that the Captain set a descent rate that was going to carry the jet into terrain short of the runway; the co-pilot and flight engineer failed to adequately cross-check the PIC; as I recall, the FE made a few protests about the captain misinterpreting an electronic signal as the ILS, but the pilot ignored him. Out of 254 passengers and crew onboard, 228 died.
One of the major findings from the crash investigation was the “crew culture,” where co-pilots and FEs were afraid to challenge the PIC—a practice that stemmed from the larger Korean culture where obedience to authority is automatic. After three fatal accidents in three years (including the Guam crash), KAL hired a former Delta executive to fix their crew coordination and training issues, and the airline’s safety record improved markedly.
Got to wonder if the co-pilot saw the Captain move his hand towards the wrong throttle and failed to act, figuring the guy in the left seat would correct his mistake. Of course, when you lose an engine on takeoff, there isn’t much time to react, and the co-pilot was probably busy with other tasks. Still, cross-checking and backing each other up is one of the fundamentals of commercial aviation. The PIC made a mistake; the co-pilot didn’t catch it (or couldn’t react in time) and a lot of people paid with their lives.