Originally Posted by DozyWannabe
the aircraft did exactly as it was designed to do with the configuration it was in.
In that connection, DW, can't resist contributing a quote from a beautifully-balanced press report, years ago, from the redoubtable Jim Wallace of the Seattle PI, on the differing design philosophies of the two major manufacturers. It has none other than John Lauber, Head of Safety Engineering at Airbus, saying what you said, almost word for word, way back in 2000, about the very first A320 crash at Habsheim in 1988:-
"Lauber said the pilots were supposed to fly by with the gear down at about 100 feet. Instead, they came in at less than 30 feet off the ground. When the plane gets below 50 feet, the computer assumes the pilots are trying to land, Lauber said.
"The fact is, the plane did exactly what it was supposed to do," he said. Only it landed in the trees.
Airbus learned much from that incident, Lauber said.
Until the crash, he said, there was a "genuine psychology" around Airbus that it had designed a crash-proof airplane because of the hard protections.
"The repercussions from that accident continue to reverberate," Lauber acknowledged."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/boe202.shtml
If it's all the same to you, I'll continue my policy of flying, as far as possible, in aeroplanes in which the pilots, not the computer programmers, have the final say.