All the checks, balances, backups or what have you are all for naught when 2 pilots forget to extend the slats for takeoff.
That is one of the most unbelievable mistakes that I could ever imagine anyone making in a cockpit. I'd like to hear the voice recorder to see if they were distracting themselves talking about something ( major breach of policy) or maybe the captain called for slats but the first officer failed to set them. (worse than a breach of policy)
I have over 10,000 hours in complex, turbine powered aircraft. That equates to around 5,000 takeoffs and landings. I can tell you a pilot worth his pay never misses anything in such an important phase of the flight.
We had a bunch of calculations and tasks to do, figuring takeoff power settings, Vr speed, 'point of no return' both speed and length of remaining runway at that point, SET THE FLAPS and confirmed with the indicator...it's about the busiest you get in a cockpit. Easy to forget something, except for the fact it's impossible to forget anything;
it's all on the checklist.
How can you forget something staring you in the face in black and white? There's only one way: you didn't use the checklist.
If you fly the same aircraft day in and day out you get to where you probably could fly it in your sleep. But this kind of familiarity can be dangerous. I'm sure when that pilot was pushing the power levers forward he "knew" everything was as it should be. He was obviously wrong.
But I always remembered what I was getting paid to do, which was get the ship from point A to point B safely. I didn't care that some of my swashbuckling coworkers said I 'look(ed) like a 'dink' for always insisting the FO read and confirm every item. If 'macho' is doing everything by rote, well, this is what you get.
If I'd been at the helm that MD80 no doubt all those people wouldn't have lost their lives, at least not on that flight.
Mechanical failure is one thing. You do prepare for it and most of them are survivable. But something as simple as a checklist.. I have a hard time comprehending this degree of mindlessness. No excuse.
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