First Officer and Relief Pilot of a B747-400 on a long range flight had to intervene when the Captain was not responsive to their calls regarding course and altitude deviations.
Synopsis
First Officer and Relief Pilot of a B747-400 on a long range flight had to intervene when the Captain was not responsive to their calls regarding course and altitude deviations.
Narrative
Shortly after takeoff with the Captain flying the airplane manually we received a clearance to turn left heading 260. I set the MCP panel and was taking care of the next ATC clearance on the FMC which was to accelerate to 300KTS or more when I noticed he was still in a 25 degree left bank way past the cleared heading. He started a right turn to heading 260 after I called it out. As I went down to the FMC to finish the task of canceling the speed limit I noticed he was descending at about 1500 FPM; He did not take corrective action after I called out 'you are Descending' and the other First Officer sitting on the Jump seat called 'Altitude' so I reached the lower part of the control column and applied back pressure to make sure we are climbing and I suggested to use the Auto Pilot which was denied; when I went down to the FMC to eventually take care of the speed and the way point we were cleared direct to; I noticed he is descending again ( From 3000 to 2700 feet at about 1500fpm )and we are overshooting the flap speed. I pulled the nose up again for climb and selected flaps up and called for Auto Pilot activation the second time; which was denied again. Basically we overshot the cleared heading; descended twice during initial climb and over sped the flaps. Had we used the Auto Pilot; none of this would have happened.
Second reporter narrative
From my position in the observer seat; I had no view of the First Officer's instruments and the Captain's elbow and control wheel obscured the heading on his PFD. As soon as I heard the First Officer; I craned over to notice the heading change and the Captain correcting slowly. The Captain then started accelerating the aircraft and in the process lost control; with the climb stopping and eventually reverting to a descent. I immediately called 'Altitude' very loudly. The First Officer told the Captain to engage the autopilot and that he was descending. The First Officer then took over and pulled on the control wheel to arrest the rate of descent. The Captain who took the controls back allowed the plane to accelerate into the over-speed range and got the aircraft in a secondary descent. I unbuckled and undid my straps; ready to 'jump in' if need be while I called 'Altitude;' again and at the same time the First Officer took control of the aircraft; again. The Captain took the controls back; engaged the autopilot (finally; despite two requests of the First Officer to do so) and regained control. The Captain appeared to be medically sound; yet appeared to freeze and be overwhelmed by the situation he had created. The Captain acted nervous the whole flight and was obviously embarrassed by the events. Both the First Officer and I addressed the situation; by calling the excursion; calling the correction and the First Officer took physical control of the aircraft to arrest the descent rate. The rest of the climb and cruise was uneventful.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.