B757 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240; Flight Crew Total 9000; Flight Crew Type 3000
Human-Machine Interface; Confusion
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft; Human Factors
This aircraft has a back course button and three control wheel steering buttons on the Mode Control Panel that do not belong there; on other airplanes those spaces have been blanked out. There is no reference at all in our manuals to these buttons and we have received no training on how to use them; nor are they labeled inop. We called local maintenance and then the Duty Manager; who coordinated with Maintenance Control; and were told that this was acceptable. We did not make a maintenance logbook entry as nothing was wrong with the airplane. I feel very strongly that this creates an unsafe situation as this one airplane is different than every other in the fleet. The situation is made worse by the buttons not being labeled inop (if they in fact are inop) or by the pilot group not being trained on how to use them if they are active.
B757 First Officer states that an aircraft he was assigned to fly has a back course button and three control wheel steering buttons on the Mode Control Panel that do not belong there.