B787 Dreamliner Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 162; Flight Crew Total 6563; Flight Crew Type 755
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors
[We were cleared] for ILS to visual conditions on rwy XX. Captain was PF (Pilot Flying); I was IRO (International Relief Officer). The glideslope signal was intermittent around 3;000 feet or so and the Captain disconnected the autopilot and started descending. Once it stabilized he was below glideslope and in FLCH mode with 100 feet set in the altitude window. He continued to follow the flight directors below glideslope at a descent rate that would keep him from capturing glideslope. When no correction was made I said 'you are in FLCH' and he said 'I'm hand flying and I see the runway'. Around 2;000 feet he still hadn't caught the glideslope and was descending; I said 'you cannot be in FLCH with touchdown elevation set.' He said; 'I'm hand flying and I'm looking at the runway'. At this point I told the PM (Pilot Monitoring) to put 3;000 feet in the window (missed approach altitude). He does but the flight directors were locked on FLCH and Captain was still descending following the flight directors. I told the PM to select another mode. He did push something but I don't know what and airplane stayed in FLCH. At 1;000 feet I said very loudly 'level off or we are going to go around'. He slowed his descent but didn't level off. I was ready to call go around at 500 feet. The airplane gave us a glideslope warning and he leveled off enough for glideslope to capture between 700-600 feet.
B787 Relief Officer reported concern when the Captain flew the approach in FLCH with touchdown elevation set and seemed unaware of the potential dangers in doing so.