(Bloomberg) -- The pilots of AirAsia Bhd. Flight 8501 cut power to a critical computer system that normally prevents planes from going out of control shortly before it plunged into the Java Sea, two people with knowledge of the investigation said.
It's strange that they would use the CB when there are pushbuttons right there on the overhead. I suppose one possible theory is that the flight was dispatched with one FAC inop and perhaps the system won't allow the remaining one to be shut down using the PB. But I doubt that as this is not an essential flight control system.
If this turns out to be true I think it will only be a layer in the cheese: first the loss of AoA protections, then, for an unrelated reason, the loss of autoflight (possible UAS) and bad airmanship + lack of procedure/CRM leading to a stall, left roll excursion and failure to recover. The flight can be dispatched with one FAC inop and can be safely flown in alternate law with both FAC's inop. If this were not true, the MMEL would not allow dispatch with a single FAC.
I also find it amusing that these press articles state the loss of protections leaves the crew having to fly 'manually'. Of course, the loss of autopilot leaves the crew to fly manually and protections are only valuable in manual flight. Loss of protections only leaves the crew having to fly manually without doing something unthinkably wrong.
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