This section describes and analyses a fictional CFIT accident scenario. It shows how traditional PF/PM “assisted” crew co-ordination procedures and CRM training are not properly integrated to minimise the risk that a crew will be drawn into a situation where they are vulnerable to a variety of human factors failings.
Many of the details found in actual accidents are obviously missing, but discussing a simplified fictional event eliminates the possibility of making inaccurate and potentially offensive statements about actual events and individuals. Experienced pilots will have encountered some or all of the principal elements making up this story. They will just not have had them combine in this way, and should ask themselves whether they could have fallen into the same trap.
This fictional event was created in 1997. The reports of the 2011 accident to a FirstAir B737 at Resolute Bay, published in January 2014, and the 2006 near-catastrophe (160ft terrain clearance at 6 miles) to an A310 at Birmingham, UK unfortunately shows it is far from unrealistic.