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Re: Pilot's Move Averts Possible Plane Crash
The headline should read: Pilot's landing attempt almost kills all on board.
It looks like a combination of crosswind gust and poor transition from a crab approach. This aircraft (A320) has sidesticks (joy stick) controls, these operate under partial autopilot type control even when the autopilot is off and are not really used very often.
The pilot may have had the autopilot on during the approach and turned it off at the wrong time.
The sidestick controls don't get used much in these airplanes, especially in that much crosswind therfore the experience flying that scenario is minimal, mostly all done in a full flight simulator. The pilot may have been "stirring paint", this refers to a panicked operation of the sidestick where the pilot is moving it too fast and too far, the flight control computer system just ignores most of this since it would rip the flight controls off the plane in some cases.
The wind numbers etc. reported by the press are usually all wrong, just like most of what they report with aircraft incidents. They should require reporters to take a class and be tested before they are allowed to report on aircraft issues.
I was a flight simulator engineer for 21 years at a major airline, I got to test fly 12 mil. simulators of the same plane, A320's, A330, and Boeing 737-200, 300, 767, 757, 727. I did testing for the FAA in the simulators, checked out windshear profiles and of course played around outside the limits of what normally occurs in flight. The software is designed to simulate a crash if certain parameters are exceeded such as striking a wingtip or too hard a landing or you can select override and let the simulator ride it out. I have done dozens of approaches like the one in the video and sometimes made the same mistakes as that pilot when distracted or just overcome by the winds that are out of published limits for the aircraft operation.
That incident will greatly help pilot training in the future, I read an article years ago about the pitfalls of not having a regular control column in front of the pilots. This is a good example of what they were trying to communicate.
Pilots just don't have the seat of the pants feel for these joy sticks yet, and may not ever since they just don't use them much in day to day flying.
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