Hmmm, something seems to not make sense here.....which is typical of newspaper articles of airline incidents. Which button do you suspect the co-pilot hit to cause this problem ? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/japanese-plane-nose-dived-after-co-pilot-hit-wrong-button-to-open-cockpit-door/article2184265/ Mark.

Something on the rudder trim panel? It's down that way on the centre console...

Hi MarkThere is a thread on PPrune covering this .I think the title is "Oops sorry about that". Have a look.

Which button do you suspect the co-pilot hit to cause this problem ?

On the center pedestal between the seats, in the lower right corner, there is a knob to unlock the flight deck door. Quite a few centimeters to the left and considerably larger is the rudder trim knob, which he accidently used. I don't know how someone with the slightest bit of competence could mix them up, but its seems to have happened.

From Avherald:

The switch to open the cockpit door is located about 10 centimeters/ 4 inches away from the rudder trim switch. By mistake the first officer operated the rudder trim switch instead of the door opening switch causing the aircraft to violently roll left and descend by about 6000 feet before the first officer was able to return the aircraft to stable level flight. The captain subsequently entered the cockpit. Two cabin crew received minor injuries (flesh wounds), no other injuries occurred. There was no turbulence in the area at the time of the occurrence.

I don't know how someone who could tie their shoes could do this. Maybe the FO uses Velcro.

Maybe if Boeing had made that Flight Door Lock Switch a "Vertical 3 way Toggle switch", then it would be far less likely to be confused with any other switches or knobs in that general area, when being operated by feel.

The completely different shapes and sizes of these knobs should be sufficient for that. Look at the screenshot that I posted!

I love how the article shows a picture of the newly delivered 787...I know there is some other text associated with the picture if you hover over it or click it, but really, does that picture need to be anywhere near the headline?? Adam

On the center pedestal between the seats, in the lower right corner, there is a knob to unlock the flight deck door. Quite a few centimeters to the left and considerably larger is the rudder trim knob, which he accidently used. I don't know how someone with the slightest bit of competence could mix them up, but its seems to have happened.

When you gotta go, you gotta go

They should submit a ticket :(

20 bucks says this will be a catalyst to change the switch shape/location.

I'm sure no one will dare to bring up in the official report the fact that this is what we get for making it so difficult for crew to get in and out of the cockpit for an alleged increase in security Bill Rowe

I've tried to recreate the incident in the NGX and I had to hold the (springloaded) rudder trim knob to the left for quite some time before anything happend. The behavior from the incident only occured when the rudder trim was almost at the max setting: left roll followed by a partially inverted dive. Of course there might be a difference in behavior between the NGX and the real one, despite all realism. ;)

Considering how many times the F/O has used the rudder trim knob during his simulator training, it's rather bewildering how such a mistake could occur. Seems downright absurd to me honestly. Highly anticipating the "official" report on this one..... Regards,Paul Wood

The completely different shapes and sizes of these knobs should be sufficient for that. Look at the screenshot that I posted!

"SHOULD" be, but in at least one case, obviously was NOT.