are programmers "failures"?

[mfleming]

(04-05-2019 07:12 AM)Dan Wrote:  There are claims that the Ethiopian pilots fought the computer system for the entirety of the six-minute flight, but weren't able to pull the nose up.

Watched an "Air Disasters" episode last night about a crash of an Air China A300 flight at Narita airport in Japan. The pilot accidentally pressed the Go Around switch on the throttles while descending for a landing. The switch causes the flight control computer to increase power and raise the nose. Unaware of what the F/C was doing the pilot initially fought to push the nose down to complete the landing, then decided to do a manual go-around by pushing the throttles forward and pulling the nose up. The plane pitched steeply up and again the pilot fought the controls to bring the nose back down. At around 50 degrees angle of attack, the aircraft stalled and then pancaked off the end of the runway. Seven passengers actually survived.

The go-around indicator was a small light in a sea of displays, the go-around mode could only be cancelled by switching to another mode and, unlike other aircraft the two pilots were familiar with, pushing the stick hard forward did NOT disengage the autopilot on the A300 at the time.

Small things, small things...

NB. Airbus had issued an upgrade notice that would have cancelled go-around mode if the controls were pushed hard forward, but because it was not marked safety critical, the upgrade was scheduled for the next major maintenance period. None of the six A300s in the carrier fleet had received the upgrade at the time of the crash.