296 was the first Airbus A320 crash and it brought out every 'expert' in the world discussing how the FBW REFUSED to let the pilot fly the airplane. In fact, if you view the video, you will see a decelerating airplane with thrust in idle. The CFM-56 is not exactly known for rapid spool up and the guy is in the trees before the engines spool up. Like Sully's event, many argue that because of the FBW envelope, the airplane could not/did not stall and thus mushed into the trees. Had it stalled, the nose could have fallen through and the airplane cartwheeled killing many more passengers.
What the Capt (chief pilot) did not know or understand was the 'alpha floor' was biased out below 50ft and so the airplane continued to slow and descend. All conditions for a landing were met and when the Capt decided to go-around he was too low and too slow. This would have happened in any other airplane but because it was FBW, French, Airbus.. it had to be some fault with the airplane.
There was a program on PBS which fed a lot of misinformation. This is a clip. Note even the title is wrong.. not a takeoff but a low pass. Also note that the sound of the engines spooling up does not occur until :27 in the video when the 'bus is already chopping down trees.
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There were some accidents where the crew misunderstood what was going on. For example, before it was changed, you could select VSI or path but the indication was not clear and a crew thought they had selected a 3.3 deg descent when they had in fact selected a 3300fpm descent. They missed mandatory altitude checks resulting in a CFIT.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2819826170241407507#
Here are 10 Airbus crashes and comment.
http://tinyurl.com/yhm4cqa
The Lufthansa crash was attributed to the 'bus 'not thinking it was on the ground' so no spoilers and no reverse. But then the same thing happened to a 737 in CLT (I was flying a 727 that night and got 3-4 cycles on the anti-skid due to standing water)
The 296 was not a cover up. It looks like a screw-up. The lesson learned is that the crew erred and in Europe there is a punitive culture which has to have a head on a plate for error.
I am no expert on the 'bus but have studied the FBW extensively and flew the 'bus for 2 yrs. But when I hear/read cover-up or comments on the FBW, I often find the individual has never flown the 'bus, never looked at the FBW and is just parroting stuff... and usually wrong stuff.
