Originally Posted by
The Lev
Arguably some responsibility might lie with the local controller who did not raise the alert when the flight disappeared from the local controller’s ASDE-X/ASSC.
I assume the NTSB would be more focused on controller workload, particularly when, "Normal air traffic staffing for the ATC tower midnight shift included two controllers. On the evening of the incident, one controller was in the tower cab." (quoted from the NTSB update) If there were two controllers, perhaps they would have been less stressed, and more likely to noticed such a deviation?
Originally Posted by
kjnangre
While I agree completely that the 30-min limit is terrible idea, I don't let AC off the hook here either. Even if we only got the last 5 minutes of the approach on tape, that would have still been very useful. Air Canada knowingly allowed the tapes to be overwritten, in violation of the law, and that should not be understated, in my opinion.
Flightaware says that the plane arrived at the gate at 00:17. If accurate, then we may have had 9 minutes of useful data. Unless you're aware of additional facts, I think you're pushing it to assert that AC "knowingly allowed the tapes to be overwritten". A more defensible position
might be that "AC and/or the pilots negligently failed to preserve CVR data for what they should have known to be a reportable incident."
Though I'm curious as to what exactly is a "reportable incident", and how well they should have known
at the time that they should have preserved the CVR. (Just trying to objectively lift myself out of my comfortable Monday-morning quarterback position!) I would not find it hard to believe that their minds were "somewhere else" after powering down the engines rather than a purposeful cover-up.
Originally Posted by
longtimeflyin
The pilot flying was the Captain, which on Air Canada is an individual who has logged thousands, if not over 10,000 hours. If pilot fatigue is in fact at play (just my guess), I still cannot fathom how two experienced Air Canada pilots would make such a dire mistake.
You don't have to guess at that; the NTSB says, "The captain had over 20,000 total flight hours, of which about 4,797 hours were as captain in Airbus A320‑series airplanes. The first officer had about 10,000 total flight hours, of which over 2,300 hours were in Airbus A320-series airplanes."