Westjet Encore DH8D at Vancouver on Jan 2nd 2026

[Eric Janson]

https://avherald.com/h?article=533e3941&opt=0

From the report:-

The crew attempted to stop the descent via the FGCP, then disconnected the autopilot and entered a manual climb at 3600 fpm.

.

Looks like about an 800 foot descent starting from 2000.

Hope this is addressed by the training department - an unacceptable level of performance imho.

[dustyroads]

https://avherald.com/h?article=533e3941&opt=0

From the report:-

The crew attempted to stop the descent via the FGCP, then disconnected the autopilot and entered a manual climb at 3600 fpm.

.

Looks like about an 800 foot descent starting from 2000.

Hope this is addressed by the training department - an unacceptable level of performance imho.

Might want to hire someone who can hand fly and takes the AP off at first indication of something not right instead of fiddling around with pushing buttons while the aircraft is clearly going into an abnormal state.

[Me262]

https://avherald.com/h?article=533e3941&opt=0

From the report:-

The crew attempted to stop the descent via the FGCP, then disconnected the autopilot and entered a manual climb at 3600 fpm.

.

Looks like about an 800 foot descent starting from 2000.

Hope this is addressed by the training department - an unacceptable level of performance imho.

Might want to hire someone who can hand fly and takes the AP off at first indication of something not right instead of fiddling around with pushing buttons while the aircraft is clearly going into an abnormal state.

Meanwhile some companies will MANDATE use of FD at all stages, meaning your already busy PM needs to push buttons on the FCP just so you can manually fly. If something goes wrong, you go to the LOWEST level of automation (that is level 1, no FD, no AP) and hand fly as you are supposed to do.

[EPR]

A great video, that's still relevant of the over reliance of automation!
https://youtu.be/5ESJH1NLMLs?si=1zvdG8JGbgvom9MA

[goingnowherefast]

I've lost count the number of times I've been hand flying and the PM screws up the FD modes. Ignore the bars and fly raw data until it gets sorted. Usually happens on a go-around or some other unusual, high workload scenario.

[pelmet]

One can attempt to correct a situation like this by still using the automatics. For me, the important question is......how far do you let it go before giving up on the automatics. Off by 100'?.....maybe try a button push to get back in the proper mode. No recovery using the automatics?.....now may be the time to disconnect the autopilot. In other words....one does not necessarily have to immediately stop using all automatics right away.

It would appear in this case that they waited too long before going to hand flying.