According to the preliminary report the 1500 hour minimum was waived because the FO came from a college program.
The accident was obviously caused by the earth. Maintain thy airspeed lest the earth rise up and smite thee.
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Be careful as some people here have either a speed reading issue or reading comprehension issue or both. 
So the Sink Rate call is usually followed with Pull Up. The FDR data will tell the story of conditions leading to and attempted corrections.
Thankyou! N6589M.
And worse - a thinking problem.
Iâm glad that doesnât make sense to someone else. The FO makes sense. With a 4 year degree, ATP mins are 1,000 and if she had been on the line for about 12 months thatâs an average of 34 hrs/month, which is realistic if she was on reserve. The captain thoughâŚheâs been there for 17 years and only has 3,570 hours TT?? If he was hired at 250 hrs (possible but highly unlikely) that means if he was on the line he flew 195hrs/year. Was he a management pilot? Something is definitely not normal there.
I read the report as saying:
- a change in wind increased indicated airspeed
- the PF reduced thrust to return to airspeed that was being used
- but a high sink rate developed (either reduced thrust too much or wind changed again)
- neither pilot recognized the sink rate
- for some reason a roll developed
- so airplane landed hard on one gear, it collapsed putting load on long lever arm to wingtip which caused wing to break
'indicated airspeed is airflow past the fuselage, wing flies IAS
âground speedâ is over the ground, IAS +/- wind
PF = pilot flying at the moment
Note that investigators obviously have flight recorder data.
The crewâs situation is somewhat like windshear from microburst - headwind suddenly increases, reduce thrust, then it suddenly decreases. The EGPWS on board may well have windshear warning function.
I do not have a perspective on how quickly the crew could recognize the Sink Rate alert and take action (pitch up and advance throttles).
Whether or not much flare is normally required with that airplane is not relevant in this case, as sink rate was abnormally high.
From Delta CEO shortly after the accident: (Capt) contributed to pilot training and safety. Flying a desk??
This is a preliminary report; we know what happened.
We DONâT know why it happened!
Many of the comments here seem not to understand that we donât know why.
My money is on wind shear; The airspeed increased, likely due to a gust,
That sort of gust is quite often followed by the opposite; a loss of speed.
That would result in a high sink rate; the aircraft was close to the ground, it takes time to reverse the effect of the abrupt loss of speed.
The mass was going down; there wasnât sufficient time or space to change the vector.
That is a guess; hopefully the final report will have more data and information.
How does a four year degree equate to 500 flight hours?
Many good comments. This accident highlights the importance of experience, currency, and proficiency. The First Officer was relatively new, and the Captainâs limited recent flight time may have dulled his response. When the âSink Rateâ alert sounded with 2.6 seconds to react, they couldnât correct. While weather and aircraft limits may have contributed, the crewâs ability to manage the approach was key. No substitute for flyingâhands on flying.
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In my almost 40 year airline career I saw a tendency for less experienced F/Os transitioning from small piston aircraft to jets a tendency to lower the nose in response to a loss of airspeed at low altitude - absolutely the wrong response in a swept wing jetliner on short final! It takes POWER to recover speed, a pitch change without it will result in a hard landing or worse.
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I donât understand the captainâs low time. After 18 years at a regional, he should have 15,000 hours or more. 3.5 hours in the past 30 days? Thatâs unlike any regional schedule Iâve ever seen, unless he spends all his time teaching in the sim.
And thatâs exactly it. Captain was a long time sim instructor so just flew enough to maintain currency. I was a sim instructor there and flew a turn maybe every other month.
@Russell Farris Radiodaze: By the way, your insight is exactly the kind of educational input this forum needs more of. Real-world lessons like yours help fill the gaps that textbook training can miss. Iâd say the more we can pass along that kind of knowledge, the better off we all are.
There are colleges with flight schools integral.
Understanding how airplanes fly is a VGI - Iâve been appalled at experienced airline pilots who did not have a clue.
Pilots need to understand airplane behaviour and differences.
What do you think is different between small piston airplane and big jet airplane? (Engine response for one but your point is about effect of changing pitch.)
IIRC thereâs a maxim taught to pilots of jet airliners.
In the airline I worked for, check pilots had difficulty getting hours, theyâd take backup slots (âreserveâ?) to get some. But check pilots were already experienced pilots.
The airline was beginning to try to change the union seniority system to put more senior pilots into the tough flying conditions.
Is this type of situation trained for in simulators? Evaluating the best pilot response in a critical scenario with only 2.6 seconds before impact, and factoring in typical reaction time (0.5 to 1 second), what actions would have been best for a chance of recovery or reducing the severity of the crash?
The difference between a light plane single or twin and a jet is wing loading. You can see the difference even between a Cessna 150 verses a Bonanza - if you get slow in the Bonanza at low altitude and just drop the nose the sink rate will increase quite a bit more than the 150 unless you also add power.
In my initial airline training in the late '70s one day of ground school was called âJet Transitionâ or something like that for the benefit of us lowly Aero Commander Twin and DC-3 pilots that were in training. There is a book called
âFly the Wingâ by Eastern captain Jim Webb that was written for the light plane drivers make the leap to the DC-9, written back in 1970 but it discusses much of what we are talking about today. Itâs still available in itâs fourth edition for 35 bucks on Amazon Prime and worth every cent and then some. Because today people are trained to pass check rides without understanding HOW they did itâŚ