Originally Posted by
LuvAirFrance
That brings up a related topic. Was the plane on autopilot.
Yes, until it was disconnected when the stickshaker activated.
I think autopilot is what encourages departures from "sterile cockpit" but you can't really take it away because so many things are kept finely tuned by the flight computer.
It's more than that. There are numerous reasons why almost all airline procedure is to use the autopilot as much as possible.
But surely the airspeed, if its that serious, must be easy to check on a pretty regular basis.
Of course it is. And indeed, the display was indicating that it was getting close to a "warning low" airspeed, but the crew either didn't notice or didn't react.
Yeh, I know the flight computer is supposed to keep it right,
Not in the mode it was in on that aircraft. See the NTSB report for more details.