Originally Posted by
sflpilot
Well the captain would probably want to take the controls if he knows it's going to be a difficult situation. He will be responsible if anything happens so he does not want to take a chance on the FO screwing up; not that the captain could not screw up, but there is less of a chance of that happening with him.
Depends on the company and the equipment. One concept that some companies use when the weather conditions are poor is the 'monitored approach'...where the FO flys the approach coupled and the CA monitors the approach while looking for the runway. Monitored approaches are often associated with CAT II and III approaches.
Shuttle doesn't do CAT II approaches...nor do they use the monitored approach concept. Neither of those says anything about the manner in which this particular approach was flown. It remains to be seen what exactly happened, and we should all hold our thoughts until then.