Originally Posted by
DCA A321 FO
Looks like they just never got things set up. The flying pilot's buds didn't really help out.
He was setup for a LOC-V/S approach but got confused, hit FLCH trying to fix it, then got really confused and couldn't recover.
Seems like a LOC-VNAV approach would have been a better plan but that wasn't even brought up during their approach brief. Don't know why.
An IOE student getting crossed up with the automation is a pretty regular occurrence. It's the check airman's job to get him out of it. This guy stayed pretty quiet the whole time. Don't know what he was thinking. By the time the third pilot spoke up it was too late too recover.