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by inferiorhuman 834 days ago
Ah, since I see the peanut gallery needs some education.

  the control yokes got desynchronised from one another which isn't supposed to happen
No, that's precisely what's supposed to happen. Seriously. On an Airbus with sidesticks opposing inputs get you a dual input warning and have a button to lock out the other set of controls, and the computers just average the inputs. On a Boeing with yokes (e.g. the 777 in question) the way you overcome opposing inputs is simply to pull harder. Past a certain point (I want to say about 50 lb of force), the torque tube linking the controls "breaks" and the controls are desynchronized. If memory serves that means each pilot gets control of the elevator on one side.

  Worst of all, Boeing doesn't warn in any way if that happens, because why would they?
This is also wildly inaccurate. The yokes are mechanically connected up until you apply enough force to break the connection. The feedback you get as a result serves as a warning. Airbus uses the aural and visual warnings because their sidesticks aren't backfed and you'd otherwise have no idea what the other pilot is doing.

There was no hardware failure. Air France simply trains their pilots to a very low standard compared to other airlines.

1 comments

> The yokes are mechanically connected up until you apply enough force to break the connection. The feedback you get as a result serves as a warning

Considering that the feedback you get might be due to outside forces, having no clear indication that the yokes are desynchronised is an issue.

  no clear indication that the yokes are desynchronised
Wrong