Oh, it might be “documented”, doesn’t sound like anyone knew about it or was trained on it, sad.
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A different crew on the same plane the evening before encountered the same problem but solved it after running through three checklists, according to the November report.
But they did not pass on all of the information about the problems they encountered to the next crew, the report said.
Why not document and pass along the info ?
Sure sounds like Boeing built one really crappy airplane.
200 hours of flight experience. Equivalent to 5 weeks.
Maybe they should have given him another couple days before putting the lives of hundreds in his hands.
A very worthwhile thing to check is to see what reports,if any,have been filed on this plane by pilots flying for First World airlines.Seems to me that if there were any we would have heard about it by now.
Having flown Third World airlines more times that I care to admit I refuse,at *this* point,to rule out something connected to pilot stupidity or inability to read English.
“They didn’t seem to know the trim was moving down,” the third source said. “They thought only about airspeed and altitude. That was the only thing they talked about.”
...
And that’s why they crashed. All they had to do was disable the automatic trim.
“The manufacturer has said there is a documented procedure to handle the situation.”
Too bad it wasn’t in the quick reference book.
L
A different crew on the same plane the evening before encountered the same problem but solved it after running through three checklists, according to the November report.
But they did not pass on all of the information about the problems they encountered to the next crew, the report said.
Why not document and pass along the info ?
...
Bad pilots and bad airline. Such problems must be logged.
I’m in IT and have worked with the guys that babysit the mainframe processing all night, calling us programmers when a job failed, etc.
When one guy leaves a shift, he passes on the notes from the previous shift, listing all activity for that shift. We did it that way in the 1980’s for crying out loud.
That crew should have had the same knowledge the crew before them had. This is a breakdown/flaw in that airline’s procedures.
It doesn’t mean Boeing is off the hook, but it looks like it really was a case of “pilot error” to some degree, if only because a different pilot had the same thing happen but the plane didn’t crash.
Computers are too heavily relied upon in aviation.
Maybe I’m missing something. Were they trying to fly via autopilot or hand flying the aircraft? I flew 4 engine transports for awhile. If we had runaway pitch trim, we disconnected the autopilot, and disconnected both the electric and electro-hydraulic trim inputs. Viola. And you fly the aircraft and don’t crash. There must be more to this. I just don’t get it.
As the 31-year-old captain tried in vain to find the right procedure in the handbook, the 41-year-old first officer was unable to control the plane, two of the sources said.
Slideshow (2 Images)
The flight data recorder shows the final control column inputs from the first officer were weaker than the ones made earlier by the captain.
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First of all, the captain should have disabled the automatic trim. His second mistake was letting the first officer fly them into the ground. Also the first officer should have let the captain know that he couldn’t control the plane.
Is this plane so inherently unstable that it has to have software to keep it flying? And the system is not documented to pilots? And the procedure to shut it down is not available in the quick ref manual?
So much wrong here. Really loved Boeing and its history, but this really sucks.
It’s supposed to be “aviate, navigate, communicate”, not “bloviate, defecate, terminate”!
From the article: “Reuters did not have access to the recording or transcript.”
Right then, a clickbait headline for an article that literally contains none of the information it promises.
Nice job Reuters.
If the computer is controlling the trim, then what about input from the altimeter? Does that parameter not come into play?
Altimeter tells the computer we’re at 1000’. Computer still trims the nose down?
(For those who don't know, there were a number of unexpected 727-100 crashes shortly after the plane went into service. Boeing determined that the flight crew let the angle of attack (AoA) go too high, causing an unrecoverable "deep stall" condition, a known fault with T-tail airplanes. A change a operating procedures during takeoff and landing and the installation of "stick shakers" to warn the pilots of excessive AoA resolved that issue.)
“Quick, quick! Google “how to avoid a plane crash”!”
“Yes, sir.”
Hit the stab trim cutoff switch.
Done.
“Alexa, are we really in a stall?”
“Hmmm, I don’t know that one”
Alexa, are we going to crash?”
“Here’s Should I Stay or Should I Go, by The Clash, on Amazon Music.”