Re:MH370: A different point of view
by ekianjo on Monday March 17, 2014 @09:53AM
(#7414970)
Come on;. The Air France cause for climbing up was due to the copilot panicking and completely misunderstanding the situation at hand once the autopilot was disconnected. I would have a hard time to believe that a veteran pilot as the one in MH370 would make such an amateurish mistake.
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Re:MH370: A different point of view
by Gravityloss on Monday March 17, 2014 @10:10AM
(#7415057)
I've heard arguments from private pilots that say exactly the opposite: The experienced pilots have so much "Nintendo time" flying just on autopilot that they are more likely to commit such gross flying mistakes. Newer pilots still have aviation basics in fresh memory because they have recently flown many hours in small planes with only manual controls.
The pilot in question had built a flight simulator at home. I doubt he was flying it mostly on autopilot. He also worked as instructor.
I am not a pilot, but I would expect both would provide opportunities to refresh memory.
Well in the AirFrance case it was clearly the inexperienced pilot who drove the plane to the water. The commander was sleeping at the time and when he came back in the cockpit he grasped what was happening but it was too late.
s/commander/captain/
s/drove/stalled/
s/sleeping at the time/had just retired to the crew cabin, taking a rest/
he was only out of the cockpit for 18 minutes.
http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2009/f-cp090601e3.en/pdf/f-cp0906...