Just saw the 60 Minutes program on the Air France A330 crash in the Atlantic a few years ago. Unbelievable.
The aircraft is in cruise on Auto pilot, flying through storms over the Equator at around 35,00ft. Three of the Pitot's ice up momentarily and the Auto pilot shuts off. PIC takes manual control and pulls the stick fully aft..... we don't know why. Obvious result, the aircraft climbs and at 40,000ft with full PAX and heavy fuel load the Airbus stalls. Aural warning "Stall Stall Stall" So what do you think the pilot did? Obviously full power, stick forward, recover to level flight, reduce power right? Uh Uh. He maintains full aft stick and current power setting. Try's to figure out why the computer has got it all so wrong. While the PIC maintains full aft stick, the aircraft is fully stalled and dropping like a stone until at 4,000ft P2 takes over, at which point the Ground Proximity Warning sounds, "Pull Up, Pull Up", so he , yes you guessed it, pulled back on the stick. End of the flight. As glider pilots we are trained to recognise and correct an aerodynamic stall, if you are pushing things in a tight and gnarly thermal stalling is a constant issue and we deal with it automatically. Stall and spin recovery training is a fundamental of our flight training. It is therefore staggering to me that the people who are trained to fly these incredibly complex aircraft such as the A330 do not actually know how to fly..... Well, not universally true, Tom knows how to fly, WPP knows how to fly, Capt Sullenberg, Peter De Crespigny and the guy who landed the "Gimli Glider" know how to fly, but guess what they were/are all glider pilots. So next time you get into an airliner cross your fingers the guy up front learnt to fly gliders first!! ROSS
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