An Airbus with 162 passengers takes off from Jakarta to Singapore, flies over the Java Sea normally, the rolls abrupt to the left, then back to the right, then pitches into a stall, and plunges into the sea, killing everyone aboard, including a flight attendant beautiful enough to appear in one of those Singapore Airline commercials.
The pilots are experienced but are irritated by a recurring warning light that the rudder can be turned too far in flight. The pilot's attempts to get rid of the problem lead to the crew's disorientation. The autopilot and autothrust shut down. The first officer has the controls and his inner ear is telling him that he's still banking to the left and he doesn't observe the instrument telling him the airplane is level.
The pilot too is responsible. He presses the button allowing him to take control of the airplane but doesn't hold the button down long enough to disengage the first officer's control, nor does he tell the first officer he's taking the controls. The result is inputs from both pilots.
Another error is the pilot's command to the first officer as the nose pitches up towards a stall angle. "Pull down!", he shouts repeatedly. "Pull" ordinarily means "pull back on the stick", which means nose up. The proper order is "push down." The lack of clarity adds to the first officer's confusion.
The usual effective team of investigators manage to disentangle the mess of data and finally figure out what went wrong, including faulty technology and pilot error. The ultimate source of the problem on this and other Airbuses was a tiny crack in the soldering of what amounts to the airplane's central processing unit.
Corrective measures are taken.
The pilots are experienced but are irritated by a recurring warning light that the rudder can be turned too far in flight. The pilot's attempts to get rid of the problem lead to the crew's disorientation. The autopilot and autothrust shut down. The first officer has the controls and his inner ear is telling him that he's still banking to the left and he doesn't observe the instrument telling him the airplane is level.
The pilot too is responsible. He presses the button allowing him to take control of the airplane but doesn't hold the button down long enough to disengage the first officer's control, nor does he tell the first officer he's taking the controls. The result is inputs from both pilots.
Another error is the pilot's command to the first officer as the nose pitches up towards a stall angle. "Pull down!", he shouts repeatedly. "Pull" ordinarily means "pull back on the stick", which means nose up. The proper order is "push down." The lack of clarity adds to the first officer's confusion.
The usual effective team of investigators manage to disentangle the mess of data and finally figure out what went wrong, including faulty technology and pilot error. The ultimate source of the problem on this and other Airbuses was a tiny crack in the soldering of what amounts to the airplane's central processing unit.
Corrective measures are taken.
