Reviewing the Air Florida in DCA. As blunt as this sounds, the First
Officer let the Captain kill him !
Had the First Officer responded to the sticker shaker by taking control and
applying full power, they could have flown out of the situation !
Why didn't he react ?
Tim
<
Tim,
The instances of one pilot watching the other fly an unstabilized approach
without progressively asserting to meet the situation are numerous. Early
in my career, I watched a captain do this and beyond repeating that we were
bug +20 and high, I did not assert further. I beat myself up for not
calling for a go around and reflected upon what I would do differently next
time. I had taught Besco's PACE methodology but I only took it to the
first level when I should have gone further. I had spent the previous few
years teaching CRM and intuitively knew what to do. In the heat of the
moment, I simply did not have a ready response when I was faced with
asserting beyond a simple probing or alerting. By the way, we landed
safely although my, speed, and distance remaining calls were perhaps an
octave higher than normal.
I believe professional skill training (initial and recurrent) should
include a scenario where each pilot must recognize and respond to an
unstabilized approach or departure. Thinking about this one without some
developed skill-based responses may not be enough. For approaches, my
company also has defined stabilized approach criteria. Skill training with
a solid SOP to back up the call appears to be the recipie for better
safety.
Vince