[sandeepmdas]

Me no Guru or not even a pilot, just MSFS.

That said, AFAIK selecting wrong levers has led to a number of incidents (mainly landing gear vs flaps). The FAA was forced to taken action and in the US the design of crucial lever knobs are therefore mandated by design (US. 14 CFR 23.781). Please see the attachment. Taken from StackExchange.com

Even with checklist, it is very evident that survival is out of question when you pull the wrong one inadvertently. Especially when you're flying that low.

Karma, as said by itwasntme.

[TSIboy]

Do note that this is only the preliminary report & though it looks very much like pilot error, its not yet clear if it was a malfunction or the PM who set wrong propeller position. The investigation is still progressing & things may change.

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

So after throttling down to idle, neither pilot noticed the reduction in the overall NVH level in the cockpit ? Shouldnt PM have been monitoring the gauges? Or were they both looking out for the runway on the LHS?

The report mentions PF repeatedly saying that she's not getting power both when she is flying and also later when captain takes control & she becomes PM. They could have noticed reduction in noise(?) but consider landing is a high workload period, they're flying, navigating and communicating now with the added problem of reducing thrust.

Also remember the whole series of events from when she asks for flaps to the crash takes place in 1 minute! (10:56:32-10:57:32). That's less that 1 minute to diagnose, consider options, decide, act and review.
Ideally the captain/first PM should have been looking at instruments & realized what he had done and put the plane into correct configuration & then decide whether to continue approach or go-around. Without realizing the prop lever was at feather, nothing much would have saved them. Too low, too slow and at the unlucky end of fate.

Originally Posted by no_fear

Don't pilots have to go through a check list before landing. With the engines at feathered positions and no flaps, was the checklist protocol not followed at all?

@Jeroen beat me to it but yes,
Usually one or two items could be left pending until the later depending on your SOP's. Sometimes lot of time can pass between the last item I did and the remaining item gets done. The checklist will be pending till then. eg. landing clearance is usually not given when you begin an approach, could be at the very last moment you get it at some places. So we would do all the items but clearance & leave checklist pending until we receive it. Another one, when flying piston props, we usually move this feather lever full forward in approach to get max thrust asap in case of a go-around but we used to wait till we are on short final to do this to not exceed the max time @ high rpm in case of go-around.
The crew here never initiated a go around hence never had to perform that checklist and the events that happened never let them complete the previous.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

That said, AFAIK selecting wrong levers has led to a number of incidents (mainly landing gear vs flaps). The FAA was forced to taken action and in the US the design of crucial lever knobs are therefore mandated by design (US. 14 CFR 23.781).

Correct, somewhat off topic but related to the above, the expression “balls to the wall”. Some people have the complete wrong end of the stick where this expression originates from. It comes from early aviation.

Originally during WW2 many planes had a ball shaped knob for the throttle.
Hence the expression, Balls to the wall!! It meant shoving the throttles all the way forward towards the fire wall.

Jeroen

[KiloAlpha]

Commentary on the preliminary report by an ATR pilot:

https://youtu.be/wIlO-TBDyaw

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

Commentary on the preliminary report by an ATR pilot:
https://Youtu.be/wIlO-TBDyaw

This is an excellent video. Thanks for sharing. This guy is an actual ATR pilot and takes you step by step through the final stages of this flight, explaining what the normal procedepures are, how the system (inter) work. Very enlightening!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

The final accident investigation on this horrendous crash has just been published.



As per the preliminary report, it appears a case of clear pilot error. These two pilots (instructor and Captain) made numerous errors. They inadvertently feather both propellers, thinking they deployed flaps. Due to the fact they were on a descent into the airport, the plane had sufficient moment to keep flying. For almost a minute, neither pilot noticed anything wrong. There were several engine instruments that would have shown them both engines were not producing any power.

Very sad and totally preventable by proper training, proper resource management and most importantly, as I keep repeating in every aviation thread, pilots must have the right mindset and attitude.

Some blame on the carrier too. Pokhora airport had not yet published approaches, so the Yeti airlines developed their own approaches. It required some tight (and thus steep) turns putting the aircraft too low for a proper stabilised approach.

The use of this approach did lead to a high workload in the cockpit.

Jeroen

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

The final accident investigation on this horrendous crash has just been published.

Agree. And the most damnable luck to crash into that deep gorge; albeit had they not, the aircraft would have plowed into that densely packed neighbourhood with potentially horrendous additional fatalities on the ground.

May their souls RIP.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Agree. And the most damnable luck to crash into that deep gorge; albeit had they not, the aircraft would have plowed into that densely packed neighbourhood with potentially horrendous additional fatalities on the ground.

May their souls RIP.

It is very sad to read such things and is definitely a sobering thought. We had taken a Yeti Airlines Flight over the Mountains when we visited Nepal. Our Pilots were skilled and we had a very pleasant and enjoyable flight. However, I wonder now, if such operators are actually fully trustworthy, considering some of the comments on this thread about corruption and lackadaisical approach to safety in general and all. After all, one is literally putting one’s life in their hands. It is indeed true that there have been many such incidents generally in the Mountains of Nepal over the last so many decades. It is even depicted in Tintin in Tibet for example. Herge, the author did draw a lot of inspirations from real life and real places and real people.

But then, why should I single out Nepal, because that also applies to the Andes in South America as per what I have read.

Saying the above, I’ve also flown MH many times and they’ve also had their share of frightful mishaps. I guess it is the “luck of the draw” and when one’s time is up, there is nothing one can really do. Sounds fatalistic I guess, but then, it is what it is.