I simply don't undersand (or don't comprehend) how the pilots don't know these things. My knowledge of planes is 4 hours of pilot lessons and watching a few documentaries on the Discovery channel yet I know that pulling the nose up of a plane would stall, that when you get bad readings from instruments you cross-check, and that a frozen pitot tube giving bad airspeed readings is very likely in high-altitude storms.
I even knew about the two modes of the Airbus - because I once watched an episode of "Air Crash Investigation" where the exact same thing as what is described in this accident happen to an earlier flight.
I don't know if I am jumping to judgement, but it sounds like some of these modern pilots aren't really enthusiasts - they are just people who are trained and do their jobs, and do them by the book and then go home (just like bus or taxi drivers).
I agree it's difficult to understand. I think a combination of confusion, distrust in the instruments and and a belief that the airplane would not stall must have contributed.
The PNF acknowledges "alternate law", if he had only made the PF aware of the implications of that, maybe he would have "snapped out of it" and stopped pulling up.
At some point during your training or flying career you'll probably have situations where in hindsight you'll try to understand why you acted a certain way despite knowing better. I've certainly encountered situations like that.
I think most commercial pilots today in a way have to be enthusiasts, or at least start out as one. The job market is simply too uncertain and cost of education so high that you really have like flying to go through with it. But keeping the enthusiasm in a job with a busy schedule and demanding family life might not be so easy. That's one reason why I don't plan on flying for a living.
Surely there must be more to it. Clearly all of us who've played a flight simulator know that going up too fast will cause you to lose speed and eventually stall and fall until you regain enough speed to stabilize.
Sadly in this case it sounds like a mix of overconfidence (not avoiding the storm, trusting the plane more than the stall warnings, not waking up the captain until it was too late) and a lack of training for unexpected situations were the major factors in the crash.
I was thinking about that after reading the report. From our perspective it might be obvious, but we can't put ourselves into that situation.
I wonder if civillian pilots can be trained in the same way as military pilots to handle stresses in emergencies and to think clearly. Or to at least learn something from military techniques
It seems that in the very rare cases where a commercial plane goes down spectacularly, the ones that make it alive were flown by formerly non-commercial pilots (military or otherwise), who've flown planes that give them much less assistance and in much more stressful situations and so "doing the right thing" has almost become second nature to them.
The problem with people is that even if you know what you should be doing in theory, when you're put in an extremely stressful situation you're unlikely to be able to come up with a creative solution... and few situations are more stressful than the moment you realize that something completely unexpected is happening, at night, in a thunderstorm, over the ocean, with 200+ lives depending 100% on your actions.
Interestingly I have not played flight simulators since the 1980's, but I know of overspeed stalls (usually mach tucks) in part from being fascinated about historical engineering, and ran into the issue when looking at WWII aircraft (interestingly the first confirmed incidents of overspeed stalls were with the propeller-driven Lightening aircraft in WWII).
At night, over an ocean, in a storm, with no visibility, in possibly significant turbulance and responsible for the lives of 300 people. I doubt knowledge acquired from an episode of "Air Crash Investigation" is very useful in such a case.
Watching documentaries or looking up stuff on the internet does not make anyone an expert. That Bonin guy, as inexperienced as he was, knows far, far more about piloting airplanes than you do.
how about why do people who have been thoroughly trained and have spent thousands of hours at the control suddenly forget everything they know in an emergency?
I am pretty certain that when the full report here is released it won't stop at 'he panicked' and that this accident will have ramifications for the entire industry
I even knew about the two modes of the Airbus - because I once watched an episode of "Air Crash Investigation" where the exact same thing as what is described in this accident happen to an earlier flight.
I don't know if I am jumping to judgement, but it sounds like some of these modern pilots aren't really enthusiasts - they are just people who are trained and do their jobs, and do them by the book and then go home (just like bus or taxi drivers).