Reproducing an incident: British Airways B744 at Johannesburg 11 May 2009

[Britjet]

Yes, that is the SOP normally. It doesn't mean you have to stop, of course.
The Captain's response would be something like "Continue".
Peter

[Will]

Thanks, Peter.

By the way, I've recently had occasion to go back to your suite of training videos. They're really helpful. Thanks again for making and posting them.

[Britjet]

Thanks, my pleasure..
Peter

[United744]

The decision in that scenario is "will this fault affect the safety of flight"?

The aircraft my father flew was MOST DEFINITELY YES, so they aborted ALWAYS even if it appeared to be false, and even if it occurred after V1 (but still on the ground). The aircraft simply will not fly. If it occurred in flight, the memory item was "reverser deployed indication: affected engine SHUTDOWN".

The reason was it used clam-shell reversers and always had a drag penalty even with the engine shutdown. A running engine caused so much asymmetric thrust it was uncontrollable in yaw even at idle.

Other airlines also have a STOP for reverser unsafe/unlocked/deployed, whether it was false or not.

Plenty of crashes due to reverser deployment in flight. It's a very serious problem.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Except, of course, for those very few aircraft designed to fly with deployed reversers.

Most extreme case:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Training_Aircraft

20 degrees glide slope to 300 ft!

To match the descent rate and drag profile of the real Shuttle at 37,000 feet (11,300 m), the main landing gear of the C-11A was lowered (the nose gear stayed retracted due to wind load constraints) and engine thrust was reversed. Its flaps could deflect upwards to decrease lift as well as downwards to increase lift.

Covers were placed on the left hand cockpit windows to provide the same view as from a Shuttle cockpit, and the left-hand pilot's seat was fitted with the same controls as a Shuttle. The STA's normal flight controls were moved to the right, where the instructor sat. Both seat positions had a head-up display (HUD).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4prVsXkZU&t=11m10s

[United744]

That thing is incredible!

Thanks to the magic of FBW, it feels like the Shuttle, too.

[Jeroen D]

Except, of course, for those very few aircraft designed to fly with deployed reversers.

Anorak fact: Concorde could deploy its reversers in flight. Only the inboard, only in subsonic flight and below 30.000 feet, but still!

Jeroen