Yes! From the article: "As the plane approaches 10,000 feet, Robert tries to take back the controls, and pushes forward on the stick, but the plane is in "dual input" mode, and so the system averages his inputs with those of Bonin, who continues to pull back.

If this is true, it's insane. What does it mean to "average" the inputs of both pilots if one is full forward and the other one full back?? It should say "conflicting command; make up your mind".

The article alludes to the old system where the stick was just the one same stick for both pilots: no possible conflicts there.

The new planes should have a way to emulate that.

This seems like a "feature" of analog controls that you'd want to take forward to fly-by-wire systems.

My fear of flying is reaching new heights.

The analog stick seems much more reliable in this way, only one source of control of the aircraft, period.

This antiquated idea has killed many more people than it would have saved in this case. Read about CRM:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_resource_management

I think a classic example is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianca_Flight_52

The plane crashed because it burned all of its fuel in a holding pattern waiting to land in JFK. When the flight engineer noticed this, he was afraid to tell air traffic control, who he believed was "higher up" than he was (and he therefore had no right to question their decision). The result was 65 dead people.

There are several cases where a lower-ranking person has noticed something that the captain has not. And when they didn't do anything about it, people died.

Quoting:

  Speculation regarding other contributing factors includes:
    The flight engineer's apparent hesitation to challenge Van Zanten
    further, possibly because Captain Van Zanten was not only senior in rank,
    but also one of the most able and experienced pilots working for the airline.

  As a consequence of the accident, sweeping changes were made to
  international airline regulations and to aircraft... Hierarchical
  relations among crew members were played down. More emphasis was
  placed on team decision-making by mutual agreement.

It sounds like both co-pilots were having mental blocks while operating together in the cockpit. With Bonin stalling the plane, while Robert is unable to figure out why the plane was not responding like he thinks it should & the insecurity of these events leads him to defer to the captain, who is not present.

I am not sure specifying a hierarchy would have helped so much in this case, but the example crashes given in this thread don't explicitly show that the hierarchical structure was the sole cause of the crashes, there were many contributing factors which lead up to both.

Two options.... 1) Place all controls between the pilots so they can easily see what eachother is doing or 2) Place a selection switch and indicator that allows a pilot to unambiguously take control of the plane and disable the other input, or to keep them in linked mode where they move together and provide tactile feedback as to what the other input is doing.

It seems that it has been known since 1987 that pilots prefer coupled sticks:

    In a 1987 evaluation of side stick controllers Summers et al (1987) found that under simulated ‘surprise’ hand overs pilots Cooper Harper rating of the schemes were (in descending order):

    Coupled sides sticks with algebraically summed inputs (1.4),
    Uncoupled side sticks with algebraically summed inputs and disconnect switch (final A320 implementation) (1.8),
    Uncoupled with algebraically summed inputs and priority logic (original A320 implementation) (3.3), and
    Uncoupled side sticks with with algebraically summed inputs (3.4).

    [...] in the circumstances identified as triggering instinctive responses the value of such alerts is degraded due to the inevitable attentional tunnelling that operators experience in high stress situations.

Even better: when you have two mechanical inputs to a single output channel, mechanically _link_ the two. If Pilot #1 moves the stick, pilot #2's stick should move. So that if there is a disagreement, they can physically observe it in their hands. Any fight over where to put the stick shouldn't be "averaged". It should be physically felt by both pilots so that they realize that there is a conflict and resolve it face to face.

It's similar to why SVN commit conflicts are so damn annoying. But they're designed to be: the only way to resolve a commit conflict is to walk over and meet your conflicter face to face and resolve. Can you imagine if SVN decided to "average the inputs"? What the fuck does that even mean? This entire plane sounds like a UI disaster (modal inputs, etc.)

This was my first thought as well. Confusion in one pilot was allowed to cause confusion in the second pilot, because he didn't realize that his partner was doing something unexpected and incorrect. If you make sure a pilot can always detect inconsistent reaction in a co-pilot, you can keep them in sync and prevent spreading confusion. An alarm when the two pilots are out of sync seems like a pretty straightforward benefit.

A pilot wouldn't have to look for some stick position display, or indicator light, if they can easily feel the deflection of the stick.

Use mechanical feedback. Not necessarily rigid connection, but at least some kind of elastic coupling or something. Or, heck, connect them rigidly.

I want a device that gives me an electric shock every time I think or say this. If one can restructure one's cognitive habits in a way that replaces thoughts like this with thoughts like "What would explain this? Is this reasonable? What are the alternaives? How can I check this?", many errors will be avoided.

A indicator light, saying the plan is in "alternate law" mode, and SHIT can go wrong, very quickly.

Also an alarm in the pilot resting area that would relay when warnings are detected like stall or switching to alternate law.

"At 2h10.16 seconds, the pilot in the left seat, the pilot not flying, says “we have lost the speeds” then “alternate law”"

Where are you going to stick the indicator light so that it's impossible to ignore it or mistake it for something else.

Illuminate the pilot's footwells with a bright red light. There is normally no illumination there at all, plus it takes up a fairly large percentage of their viewable area when looking at their screens.

Or, change the background colors of all the screens from black to red. That might harm usability too much though. Maybe change all the other switch backlighting over to red. Or change the cabin overhead lighting over to red.

To the greatest extent possible, the entire environment and interface needs to communicate the modal shift. And pilots would need to train on this shift constantly so that recognition, and the appropriate shift in thinking, would happen habitually.

Might interfere with normal/night vision.

I think we've discovered the most difficult UX design task on earth.

The most obvious solution to me, if all of that information is accurate, is that there should be a distinct audio stall warning for alternate law.

Instead of the plane saying "Stall... Stall... Stall... " when in alternate law it should probably say "Stall... alternate law... Stall.. alternate law...". Doesn't guarantee you the pilot will listen, but it seems like it is pertinent enough information to push it front and center along with the stall warning.

The problem is that making something more noticeable automatically makes everything else less noticeable...

It does not appear that it's very clear when the plane goes into alternate law & it does not appear they receive much training on how to fly in alternate law. Even if they do receive training, you probably do not want your most novice pilot handling the controls in alternate law. Additionally the averaging of the inputs seems to be the most obtuse way for pilots to realize mismatched inputs.

I don't know how an Airbus notifies the crew of the switch to alternate law, but I'm willing to bet that the master caution light comes on.

Maybe everyone on the plane could have one!