“I still think of TWA flight 800. The front end of the plane broke off, including the cockpit, and fell into the ocean. No pilot. No control possible. The rest of the plane, with nearly all of the passengers still there, continued to fly for, what, 10 more minutes (the front end missing actually changed the center of gravity, causing the plane to tip up and gain altitude for a while). Those 10 minutes, knowing that there is no way to possibly avoid the upcoming fatal crash.“
At least it will remove the auto-crash feature, but still I think there will be additional pilot training and better documentation involved. The irony in all this is that the A320 had a similar issue a decade ago, but somehow the Boeing folks did not see it fit to learn from Airbus' experience. That is what bugs me the most. We are collectively supposed to learn from mistakes and not repeat them, and as it turns out in a more spectacularly brainless way.
