Re: Situational awareness
it sounds an awful lot like they were committing a mistake that many good professional pilots have made down the years, instinctively trying to maintain situational awareness visually
No, read the article. They were both watching the video surveillance package monitor showing a view backwards out of the plane instead of the operator control monitor. They were not supposed to be doing that. They then panicked and did something without checking the instruments which resulted in the loss of sixteen million pounds of aircraft plus however much it cost for the investigation - of our money.
So they were goofing off to start with, then they lost discipline and finally failed to follow procedure. I'd court marshal them both for dereliction of duty and hopefully they'd get thrown out with a dishonourable discharge after a goodly spell in the glasshouse.
Also, what the hell were the guys from Thales that were supervising them doing? Probably also watching the pretty art video on the other monitor as well - again, which was not why they were there. That's grounds for demanded a replacement aircraft free of charge in my book. (But then the MoD never actually makes contracts with the pond life arms companies that hold them accountable, do they? Otherwise the brass & civil servants who sign it off wouldn't get their bribes - sorry - non-exec directorships, fact-finding trips to the Bahamas, etc.)
On a wider point, why are we paying for all this tech if it's never actually used? Wouldn't the money be better spent on, oh I dunno, proper armoured vehicles for the lads & lasses to protect them from IEDs instead of giving them Land Rovers with a bit of extra tin riveted on?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
