AirAsia vs Scarebus - looks like this is going to get messy

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http://news.yahoo.com/airasia-captain-left-seat-jet-lost-control-sources-043332965--finance.html

Captain climbs out of his seat in turbulence to pull the CB for the FAC. Note that this is beyond the normal reset which I guess is reachable from the pilot seat. He wanted the FAC completely disabled. He didn't trust the system and I guess felt they were better off without it. I think it has a backup FAC but admit my lack of knowledge on the Scarebus before anyone else will do that for me.
 
There are 2 FAC's. You do not disable a FAC in flight unless instructed to do so by the ECAM, and I can't think of a situation where that would happen.

The Captain decided he wanted to become a test pilot that day. Doesn't matter what airframe we are talking about, when the PIC decides to start making up procedures then you can expect a probable out come.
 
What would make a captain with billions of comm flight hours take that drastic step? Did he go off the reservation?
 
People familiar with the matter said it was the Indonesian captain Iriyanto who took this step, rather than his less experienced French co-pilot Remy Plesel, who was flying the plane.
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Sounds similar to UPS 6. Captain left his seat to find the supplemental O2 and was overcome leaving the FO (less than 80 hours in type) to fend for himself.
 
mtuomi said:
You can go to Direct Law without leaving your seat.
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Yeah, he was all done with that system and didn't want to hear anymore out of it. I think he had zero trust in the FAC is the only rational way I can see this.
 
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It had malfunctioned twice on the same aircraft before for that captain. He obviously didn't trust it. This is a red herring - it's not the reason why it crashed.
 
@ R&W:

For the benefit of us bugmasher folks could you briefly explain the function of the FAC?
 
stratobee said:
It had malfunctioned twice on the same aircraft before for that captain. He obviously didn't trust it. This is a red herring - it's not the reason why it crashed.
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True. Like I said earlier, that day he decided to become a test pilot. :nonod:

One thing to remember about these airlines in Asia, especially India and SE Asia. Training is no where near western standards. Take systems for example, there is virtually no systems knowledge on type ratings or recurrent. They know procedures, and they know how to program a MCDU. If the ECAM says to switch off a ELAC or a FAC, they will do that, but not understand why they are doing that.

Give them a problem outside of a procedure and you get the "deer in the headlights" look. Unfortunately it looks like this time they decided to play test pilot. :nonod:
 
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