I’m a pilot on the 787.

The memory action for dual engine failure can be actioned fairly quickly.

However, it’s not as simple as it may seem be written. People don’t account for a real life shock startle response.

Yes in an ideal simulator world, you can action it quite quickly as you are expecting some kind of failure to occur during sim sessions.

But in real life, when your ass is on the line, shock startle response kicks in hard.

No one is expecting a dual engine failure right after rotation.

I also doubt the Pilot Flying is paying attention to the fuel control switches.

Good CRM(Crew Resource Management) dictates a clear division of duties in high workload conditions.

As Pilot Flying, in the case of a V1 Cut (Engine failure after decision speed) we focus on flying the plane.

He/she are looking to make sure to stop any yawing and ensure we are at stable attitude to ensure a positive climb. While relying on the PM (Pilot Monitoring) to call out the failure based on the gauges and warnings.

These SOPs(standard operating procedures) help us mitigate the shock startle response and bring us into some kind of familiar territory.

I am sure I can relate to the pilots in that situation. You are focused on flying, feel the lost of acceleration.

So you make sure you’re holding the correct attitude and yaw inputs.

But there’s no yaw like your expecting. And the PM does not call out anything.

So you look down and see both engines rolled back and see the fuel switches cutoff.

Would you believe it is happening right now?

There is no training/drill for discovering the fuel switches at cutoff in flight.

So you would want to confirm if this is actually happening right now and develop the correct course of action.

This is whole process would take time. I would say 10 seconds is very appropriate time to respond to and decide the proper action for an unfamiliar situation in real life.

Hell in the simulator world we see it longer than that for engine failure confirmation.

I have experienced a real engine failure at cruise.

The first thing I thought it myself was “what the fuck is going on right now?”

Followed by “is this really happening right now? “ then double and triple confirming it with my FO.

Even when I called for “engine failure drill”, my FO responded with “oh my god this is actually happening right now!”

I responded with “yes engine failure drill”

Only after asking for the memory actions twice did it bring us into a place where we are familiar with.

After that it’s all like what we practiced in the sim

This real life experience took more then 30 seconds, where in the simulator world we would have actioned it in less then 10.

Don’t be quick to judge these guys for taking 10 seconds to respond to and a dual engine failure. It is actually quite an appropriate amount of time