Dugie8
Well-Known Member
PSA allowed either crewmember to call for the abort, although the CA was the one who performed it. Current shop, only the captain can call for it.
I did one highspeed RTO (at about 120) in the RJ based off of the FO calling for an abort due to a reverser deploying. Fortunately it was a pretty long runway so it was a non event. In the debrief afterwards we talked about if it had been a much shorter runway and agreed that we probably would have taken the plane into the air at that point as the CRJ will fly (kind of) with one engine in idle reverse, at least according to the sim. After that I have become a fan of the captain being the only one that can call for the reject as there is a lot of trust and thought that goes into a go/no go decision like that. Not that the FO can't make a decision of that type but it would be difficult to convey the whole thought process of "something broke but I'm not calling for a reject because there is only a little bit of runway left and the plane will still fly". Where as how most places do it, it's simply the FO saying "reverse deployed" and the captain thinking through the whole thing and then saying "continuing" or "rejecting".
I'm torn on the idea of only one person in the front office being able to make the go/no-go decision. Statistically it may not matter and is probably more of an indicator of the culture of a company or pilot group than anything.